Jean Claude Van Johnson premieres Friday on Amazon's Prime Video service, delivering a welcome kick to its original programming lineup. The six-episode series follows a fictionalized version of Jean Claude Van Damme (played by Van Damme, of course) as he struggles to maintain a sense of purpose and relevance within his line of work. The big twist here places the down-on-his-luck actor smack-dab in a world of espionage and intrigue, revealing Van Damme is really Van Johnson — a deep cover spy working for the American government.
Jean Claude Van Damme is well known throughout the world as a big-screen action star. But with Jean Claude Van Johnson, the martial artist makes the risky jump to the world of television entertainment. During a time of movie-to-TV reboots, where action hits like Lethal Weapon and Taken have struggled to find audiences on the small-screen, Jean Claude Van Johnson is an outlier. Instead of rebooting a movie, the Van Damme series offers a reboot of the man himself — picking apart action cliches and Hollywood tropes, along the way.
One has to wonder why it has taken so long for the action star to come to the small-screen. What is it about the Amazon series that motivated him to finally make the jump? "Now is the right time and the right place, I guess," Van Damme told IGN during Amazon's press junket. "Destiny … I guess everything is perfect. The comedy was always there. The timing was always there. Either you have it, or you don't."
While Van Damme is known to millions for his scrappy martial arts charisma and style, audiences have never seen the actor take on comedic subject matter such as this. Jean Claude Van Johnson aims to give us all a different perspective on the action star. According to Van Damme, he's been wanting to work in television for some time.
"I approached Scott Free TV [in 2013] because I was thinking that being a spy and being an actor at the same time can be exciting," he explains. "It was a sleepy idea. But one day, I talked to the guys at Scott Free and they took it to another level. [Dave Callaham] made this something completely different. He made it completely unique. Thank god! If not, it'd be like, you know, Baywatch or Charlie's Angels."
Jean Claude Van Johnson is a layered exploration of an action star past his prime, but there are some deep genre cuts featured throughout each episode as well. Callaham's action sensibilities — he's the guy who created the Expendables franchise — pair quite nicely with Peter Atencio's (Keanu, Key and Peele) knack at bringing this satire to life.
But through all the explosions, high kicks and signature splits, Jean Claude Van Johnson's success relies on the human element the story explores. "My character is a little lonely and getting older," he explains. "For me, it's a chance to show the public something different. I think it will surprise the audience while keeping my fan base of hardcore action fans happy."
A six-episode series feels reasonably short for a series such as this. While Atencio confirms that the story in Season 1 is "a self-contained arc," he tells IGN there is definitely room for more. "There is a lot of fertile ground possible to keep exploring within this universe, for sure."
Jean Claude Van Johnson premieres Friday, December 15 to Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Aaron Pruner is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @AaronFlux.