After a lengthy production period, Jack Ryan is returning to Prime Video with an explosive Season 3. From Venezuela in Season 2 to now Rome, CIA agent Jack Ryan, played by John Krasinski, can’t seem to stay out of international troubles. When Ryan uncovers a rogue faction’s secret plans for Russia to reinstate the USSR, the CIA opts to stand down. Believing that this could lead to devastating consequences, Ryan dodges commands and becomes the target of not only the extremists but the CIA, as well.

The series will welcome back previous members of its ensemble cast, Wendell Pierce and Michael Kelly, but Season 3 is also introducing a number of new characters. Two of those new faces joining Jack Ryan’s high-stakes third season are Betty Gabriel as Elizabeth Wright, the Chief of Station, and Nina Hoss as Alena Kovac, President of the Czech Republic.

Before Jack Ryan Season 3 hits Prime Video on December 21, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with Gabriel and Hoss to talk about their new roles. During their interview, the two discuss the “eerie and unsettling” way this new season reflects political issues of the real world today, and suggest that, as in life, you never truly know who to trust in the show. They also share which locations were their favorite to film in, the scale of the stunts and settings of Season 3, and which of their previous projects they’d like fans to check out. You can learn all of this and more in the video above, or by reading the full transcript below.

COLLIDER: Well, first I want to say I’m halfway through Season 3, and very curious how this is all going to work out. I like throwing a curve before I get into Jack Ryan. For both of you, if someone has actually never seen anything that you’ve done before, what is the first thing you’d like them watching, and why?

NINA HOSS: I don’t know. It’s a German film, I would say. Actually two. It’s the last one, My Little Sister, I think is a film that I would love people to see, and Phoenix, maybe. That’s another film I’ve done, both in the German language, but with subtitles.

BETTY GABRIEL: Gosh, that’s a tough one. I mean, probably the obvious answer is Get Out because it’s such a great film. I think that, first and foremost, if no one’s seen it at this point, I’d be like, “Well, you have to see it immediately.” Yeah. It’s such a profound piece of work that no one should miss out on.

Image Via Amazon Studios

When you were filming Jack Ryan Season 3, you couldn’t have known how the real world was going to be when the season comes out, but it does feel like it’s very relevant to what’s going on in today’s politics this season. Can you sort of talk about that aspect of it?

GABRIEL: I think it’s quite eerie and unsettling to see the real world emulate what this very fictional tale is that was written and created before that. It’s so bizarre, and it’s really unsettling and upsetting. And I’m repeating myself. I don’t know. It’s hard. It’s hard, but it’s hard for anyone.

HOSS: At the same time, when you then get to watch it, things are very different, on the other hand, than from what’s going on in the real world right now. And you might think you know who the villain is, and then it’s not who you think it is.

So that is the good thing, why I think you can watch it with a certain lightheartedness, also, and immerse yourself into this Jack Ryan universe because the storyline is very close to what’s happening right now, and the danger that came from all of this, but it comes from a different spot. It’s a different thing on its own. And the good thing, I think for us, was that we were shooting it where none of this was on the horizon. Maybe for some who knew a bit more. But for the normal public audience, we didn’t know. So we had a certain lightheartedness and freedom with the whole story while working on it.

Because you haven’t been on Jack Ryan before, [I’m] just curious what it was behind the scenes, what makes this show a little bit unique, or what was surprising to you about making Jack Ryan that you perhaps weren’t expecting?

HOSS: Well, I wasn’t expecting the scale of things. I mean, it’s a big show. Like you say, you fly in and fly out with a jet. I mean, I didn’t get to fly, but to enter the jet and to leave the jet.

GABRIEL: Spoiler. I wasn’t really flying either. I wasn’t flying.

HOSS: But no, to stand as the President of Czech in front of your whole military gang, and holding a speech, and then they’re all there. It’s not being … How do you call it? CGI? So it’s just real. The scales of the stages we were working in, you would walk from the Oval Office into the Czech Republic Oval Office and to the Kremlin. And they really look like it. That was just amazing.

GABRIEL: Yeah, and I think it’s even more so this season. It’s just off the charts how epic the stunts that Jack does [are]. Whoa. And the intensity of some of those sequences is just … Wow, it’s really great. I’m so honored to be a part of it.

I think that’s one of the reasons, also filming on location, why it resonates with so many people because it feels, when you’re watching it, this is believable. You’re not watching it in some small soundstage filming in LA.

HOSS: It’s true. I think that is really the appeal of the show, that you can rely on. If Jack and Mike are running through the streets of Athens, that’s where they are. That’s really where the show goes. So yeah, exactly.

Image via Prime Video

Because the show film’s on location, which of the locations that you wish you could have spent more time in? The one that you’re like, “Oh, this is amazing. I can’t believe I’m getting paid to be here”?

GABRIEL: Vienna. I mean, because it’s this city that feels like it’s floating in the clouds. It’s so beautiful, and I really only got to spend half a day there. But yeah, it’s gorgeous and really beautiful castles, and Beethoven in the air. It’s just a very classical, beautiful, aristocratic place.

HOSS: My main time was spent in Budapest, really, and then being in Prague, which was really where my character comes from, and where she’s situated. So I would’ve loved to spend a little bit more time in Prague just to soak it all in, where this character comes from, and just because I love Prague. Not that I didn’t like Budapest, but I spent more time there. So yeah. But it was great though.

My last thing real fast, and I hate asking a little bit of a generic thing, but what have you been telling your friends and family about who you play in the series?

HOSS: I didn’t say anything because I don’t want to spoil anything. Watch it, please. You’ll be surprised.

GABRIEL: Yeah. Yeah. I haven’t really talked much about it with my friends and family. I guess that doesn’t mean we’re very close then. No, they’ll see it when they see it. Yeah, same. I don’t want to spoil it.

Jack Ryan Season 3 premieres December 21.