Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Season 4, Episode 6 (Series Finale).

After five years, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan wrapped up its fourth and final season Friday on Prime Video, delivering a neatly packaged payoff for viewers following the extreme tension mounting over its final episodes. Completing its run on a high note while offering a strong finale with gripping, adrenaline-driven action, the series gave our titular hero, played by John Krasinski, the ending he deserved. But not without some questions that will leave fans of the Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland-created espionage thriller wondering what comes next in the Ryan-verse. While everything is up in the air right now and no immediate plans are set, series star Wendell Pierce hopes there is more to come, as he tells Collider in an exclusive interview he “would love to see” more unfold with the characters.

In an exclusive Q&A about the series finale, “Proof of Concept” before the strike, Pierce shared with Collider how he feels about that ending, where his character Jim Greer and Jack are following that harrowing rescue, and what went into that very elaborate and explosive final scene in Mexico. Expressing he has a “profound sense of accomplishment and gratitude” over the final season, Pierce also opens up about what he’s got coming up next, including the directorial feature Billy, a story based on the book by Albert French about a 10-year-old Mississippi boy named Billy Lee Turner, who was convicted and executed for accidentally killing a white girl in 1937.

COLLIDER: Wendell, I’m so happy to talk to you again. Congrats on the series finale of Jack Ryan. I’m going to miss this show so much, but I’m so excited for fans to see this! With the show having wrapped now, and we’re at the end of Jack Ryan’s [John Krasinski] chapter, how do you feel about the conclusion?

WENDELL PIERCE: I feel a profound sense of accomplishment and gratitude. I think it really fulfills a lot of the expectations of the fanbase. I think it’s a great conclusion. I’m so profoundly grateful I was able to do it these past five years because we did something very special, I thought. And it was a great adventure while doing it.

It’s so funny because I know a lot of times you play authority roles, and one of the ones that I grew up with was Bunk [from The Wire]. Is there something that Greer could learn from Bunk and Bunk could learn from Greer? I feel like they’re different, but there are similarities there too.

PIERCE: That’s a really good question. James Greer is a very good judge of character, he’s a very good student of human behavior, he’s a very smart, decisive CIA officer, and that discipline in their work is something Bunk could learn from. He has the discipline, but he kind of goes by the seat of his pants sometimes, on instinct, but he could be a little more disciplined. I guess Bunk could let Greer kind of loosen up a little bit. [Laughs]

Yeah, I think so too!

PIERCE: Bunk goes a little too far, but he would loosen James up a little bit.

For sure, that’s a great response. So, in that last episode — Jack’s kidnapping, I have to say, that was very intense. When Greer saw that happen, I’m sure it was a lot for him, too, considering how much they’ve been through. They were at different points in their relationship from when Greer was imprisoned in Season 2 and Jack saved him, and Jack’s kidnapping this season and how then Greer saved him. Where is their relationship now and how has it evolved by the end?

PIERCE: Well, once someone saves your life, you are forever, eternally grateful and responsible for them. When Greer sees that that is the ultimate challenge for him in that moment, I’ve gotta get Jack out of his situation. So it just strengthens the level of their connection, it deepens their care and love for each other, and it stands for me to return this eternal favor and blessing that he gave me. It defines his every movement after that.

One of the final scenes in Mexico is actually one of those edge-of-your-seat shootouts where I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, and they had a bomb to find. What was involved in the production of that scene? I feel like it was very elaborate. It must have taken days to film that.

PIERCE: I was wondering how we were doing it. It was unique. We took over a runway at an airport, so that really gave us the freedom to create that highway and that shootout and do all the different angles with the multitude of cameras. That was really great shooting that. I was just wondering, “Man, we’re gonna shut down this highway somewhere,” and then I realized how elaborate it was — it was really great, man. It was intense to kind of do it from all these different angles, all these different days. It was almost a week of work on that one scene. That was great. That was intense and fun.

Yeah, it really looked like a lot of fun behind the scenes, and knowing you guys, I can believe it. But, you know by the end of the season, there is a new dynamic brewing between Greer and [Elizabeth] Wright (Betty Gabriel). Could we see maybe potential for those two to work together in the spinoff — like, would you love to see that?

PIERCE: I would love to see that. [Laughs] My standard answer has been to let this season do its work, and maybe the powers that be will look at it and see the impact that it has, and maybe, like all good work, it will change hearts and minds. We’ll see what happens. I think there’s room.

I know that Greer didn’t have too many moments with [Domingo] Chavez (Michael Peña), but I think there’s a dynamic there, also, that would be very interesting.

PIERCE: Yeah, absolutely. He didn’t have the moments with him, but he knew him. It’s kind of where Wright was, prior to us meeting her. When she comes in and goes, “James,” I go, “Elizabeth.” You know, just in that simple greeting, that there’s a history. So there’s a history before we see them come together and there’s going to be a history that we create afterward. It’s an opportunity to either write and depict that or not. I think there are ample opportunities, even with Chavez in that way.

I would love to see that. I know the fans, once they see these episodes, are going to really want more. I think there’s a whole crew building up here with great potential, especially like Greer and Mike [November] (Michael Kelly). I love that bromance! Such a fun dynamic to see unfold. But in terms of story, one of the interesting things is, there’s a very strong political element involved in these stories, especially the past season with situations taking place — I think just a couple of weeks ago there was something with China allegedly laundering money through Mexico. When you read these stories, as an actor, and then these are stories that you’ve built, maybe years and months before these things happen, has that surprised you? How do you feel reading that? Sometimes they’re like predictors.

PIERCE: It’s amazing with almost every season, which they’re putting together almost a year and a half/two years before you’re seeing it. It just shows you how astute the writing is, to pick up on possibilities of what could happen in the geopolitical world. We are a fictionalized show, we are not depicting what is the reality, but it just shows you how informative and how prescient the observations of our writers are, that things that they have written about in fiction sometimes are reflected in what we see in the world around us. But it’s a piece of fiction and just a reflection of how observant our writers and creators are.

It’s incredible. Before I let you go, I’m such a big fan of yours; I’ve always wanted to see you on Broadway, on a stage, and I never got a chance and then the pandemic happened, but I’m really interested in your directorial efforts. I know that you’re going to be working on Billy, which is based on a true story and the book by Albert French. Can you tell us anything about that and when we can expect it?

PIERCE: I’m still trying to find financing for it. It’s a very special film. It’s about what our values are, how we value life. A small child is in an incident where he takes a life by accident, and do we decide to take his life by time? It is a moral dilemma. It’s a morality play, really, where you look at this incident— It’s inspired by George Stinney, who was the youngest person to be executed in America, at the age of 13. It’s a morality tale. Albert French remembered that when he was a child and then wrote that novel, and I’m trying to get that done. It’s a very thought-provoking and emotional film, and day by day I try to get closer to getting financed, but hopefully, that’ll get done. It’ll just take 20 days to shoot it, and then we’ll be able to get it out there.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Seasons 1 to 4 are now streaming on Prime Video.