There is something about Chris Pratt that makes him the perfect actor to play law enforcement officers, especially those in the military. From Zero Dark Thirty to The Terminal List, his TV and film career has featured these roles that have made him one of the most recognizable actors of the last two decades. Just this year, he played a police officer in Mercy, a timely film about AI that, while it underperformed in theaters, became a hit on streaming. This November, Pratt is once again taking on another military character, but there is something different about this one.
If you’re wondering whether he might be getting typecast, his upcoming Apple TV movie taps into a different side of him. Instead of relying on the hard, gritty exterior Navy SEALs are known for, his character, Jake, uses military training for something different. In the film directed by McG, Jake is a decorated Navy SEAL who spends a summer with his sister, Sarah (Linda Cardellini), and her son, Marc (Jude Hill). Jake learns that his nephew is having a hard time at school.
Middle school has been hell for Marc because, apart from being bullied, he has bad grades, horrible physical education, and his friends are non-existent. Many movies about bullies follow a similar script: The bullied kid learns to fight and shows his bullies who’s the boss. But not Way of the Warrior Kid, as the film is titled. Jake draws on his military training to launch Operation Warrior Kid to help his nephew address his current problem. The film’s description remains cryptic about what Operation Warrior Kid entails, saying that he “shows Marc what real courage is.” Jake is also benefiting from this operation, as it helps him confront his own demons. Way of the Warrior Kid was written and adapted for the screen by Will Staples, based on Jocko Willink‘s book.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Chris Pratt Will Be Back for ‘The Terminal List’ Season 2
If you’re craving Pratt in his full element, look no further than the second season of his hit Prime Video espionage thriller, The Terminal List. Four years after the first season premiered, James Reece is back, blowing more conspiracies open in the second season based on Jack Carr‘s book, True Believer. The story sends Reece on a “journey of violent redemption, finding a new purpose after finishing his list.” The entire season drops on Wednesday, October 21.
Way of the Warrior Kid hits Apple TV on Friday, November 20, 2026. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
