Prime Video's upcoming thriller The Terminal List is based on the bestselling novel by Jack Carr and stars Chris Pratt, who also serves as an executive producer alongside his producing partner Jon Schumacher, Carr, director Antoine Fuqua, writer Daniel Shattuck, and showrunner David DiGillio. The action-packed series follows Navy SEAL James Reece (Pratt) and his return home after his platoon suffers an ambush. The character comes face-to-face with his PTSD and vengeance as his family and friends are endangered. In addition to Pratt, the all-star cast includes Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough, and Patrick Schwarzenegger.
The Best War Games had the opportunity to chat with David DiGilio about his adaptation of The Terminal List. Throughout our conversation, we spoke about his pitch for the television series, working with Chris Pratt as both an actor and an executive producer, building a writers room filled with people who have military connections, the most challenging scenes to shoot, and the likelihood of a second season.
The Best War Games: Given that The Terminal List is based on a novel by Jack Carr, what first drew you to the story?
David DiGilio: The novel by Jack Carr and the fact that Antoine Fuqua was directing, and Chris Pratt was starring and executive producing. I grew up in Washington, DC and have a lot of connections to the CIA, and military veterans in my family. I've been looking for a military thriller, or an espionage thriller, for a while. I also absolutely love the conspiracy thriller genre. I love the great conspiracy thrillers of the 70s, like The Parallax View, Marathon Man, Three Days of the Condor, and my first TV show ever was in the conspiracy thriller genre [Traveler].
The genre was something I really wanted to get back to. When I heard about the project, I expected to want to be part of it. But then I picked up the novel and read it, and realized that Jack Carr, former Navy SEAL, is also this incredible student of history. He gives us a look inside the warrior mindset that I don't think we've ever really seen on the page. We've never seen anything quite like it. On top of that, it is authentic. His level of detail as he describes trade, craft, weaponry, vehicles, is never before seen.
When I spoke to Chris, and Antoine, and ultimately Jack Carr, I said, "I want to honor this character, and this incredible military authenticity. But I also want to take the psychological element of what's happening inside Reece's head and amplify it. What do you guys think?" And everybody was very excited.
GR: It seems like an incredible collaborative process. Did you originally envision Chris Pratt as Reece?
DiGilio: The process with Chris and this character started long before I came on board. I think Jack Carr was imagining Chris in this role as he was writing the novels. A mutual friend of Chris and Jack's, former Navy SEAL Jared Shaw, who's a co-producer on this show and plays the role of Boozer, actually read an early draft of the manuscript and took it to Chris.
Chris had been looking to step into the producer role along with acting and wanted to make this his first project. He was pursuing the rights and then heard someone else was bidding against them, and that someone else was Antoine Fuqua, who Chris had worked with in The Magnificent Seven. They called each other and said, "Hey, why are we bidding against each other? Let's team up."
GR: That's great. I love that.
DiGilio: It was amazing. Those guys ended up teaming on the project, and then they looked at the book and realized they needed more than two hours to honor the story. So, it had to be a TV series. At that point, they went looking for an experienced showrunner and I came in and pitched my take on the material. Then I assembled an amazing writing staff—really, truly remarkable writers—including former military veterans and former special operators, and we set about writing this twisted, psychological revenge thriller.
We had Chris in our minds this whole time because we knew he was going to play this role. Chris, as a storyteller and producer, has a natural instinct for emotion and things that resonate. He was just so helpful, especially in crafting the season one story arc. He and his producing partner, Jon Schumacher, became our sounding boards, along with Antoine and Carr. It was a massive team effort to build the scripts and see what you see on screen.
GR: That's incredible. You can see the authenticity throughout the episodes. I would love to know more about your experience behind the scenes. The show features a lot of intense and heartfelt moments. What were the most challenging scenes to shoot?
DiGilio: I appreciate that. One thing we set out to do with this show is to make sure the characters and themes were just as impactful as the action. It was massively important to balance the two. It's very easy to say, "Oh, the toughest scene we did was the five days in the tunnels for the massive scene that opens the series." But no, I mean, you look through this season and the incredible emotional journey that these characters go on, and those scenes, especially from the writing side, are incredibly tricky. But when you have a cast like this, oh my god, it is truly movie star-level casting. They knocked that finale out of the park, scene after scene. I can't wait for people to get to the end of the season and to see their reaction.
GR: Do you think the series ends in a way that sets us up for more? Are you wanting a second season?
DiGilio: Well, fingers crossed. One of the things that Carr has gifted us with is an incredible blueprint for seasons to come. He's writing at this bonkers pace of one novel per year. He's written two novels that just came out and hit the top of the bestseller list. What I would say is that anybody who loves season one, should buy the book. It's an epic read.
The Terminal List premieres July 1 on Prime Video.