Jocko Willink went from commanding Navy SEALs in Iraq to writing books for middle schoolers, and now Chris Pratt is playing his kid hero's uncle!
Willink enlisted at 19, got through BUD/S with class 177 and spent eight years as an enlisted SEAL with SEAL Team One before earning his commission. He put in 20 years in the Navy, with time as a SEAL instructor along the way, and retired in 2010 as a lieutenant commander.
In 2006 he took SEAL Team Three's Task Unit Bruiser into the Battle of Ramadi in Iraq.
He came home with the Silver Star and the Bronze Star.
Bruiser was made up of Charlie and Delta platoons, and some of the names in it are ones action fans already know. Chris Kyle, whose story became American Sniper, was in Charlie Platoon. So was Marc Lee, the first Navy SEAL killed in combat in Iraq. Michael Monsoor, who jumped on a grenade on a Ramadi rooftop to save his teammates and received the Medal of Honor posthumously, was in Delta. Willink wrote about Monsoor in a 2019 piece for Fox News, and he describes himself there as Monsoor's Task Unit Commander.
He started writing for kids because he couldn't find books he wanted his own kids to read, as Deadline reported back in 2024. The first Way of the Warrior Kid novel came out in 2017, and its hero is Marc, an 11-year-old who spends a summer getting trained by his Navy SEAL uncle.
In the beginning Marc can't manage even one pull-up!
Apple Original Films dropped the first trailer earlier this week, and it premieres globally on Apple TV on Wednesday, November 25th, five days later than the original November 20th date in Apple's February announcement.
Here's the trailer!
Pratt is Uncle Jake, who Apple describes as a decorated Navy SEAL. He's injured, and he moves in for the summer with his sister Sarah (Linda Cardellini) and her son Marc (Jude Hill, from Kenneth Branagh's Belfast). Middle school has been rough on Marc. He's getting bullied and falling behind, so Jake puts together a training program built on his own SEAL experience, Operation Warrior Kid. Apple says the program ends up being about courage.
Willink, who also teaches jiu-jitsu in San Diego, shows up on screen as a jiu-jitsu instructor the trailer makes look pretty scary, per The A.V. Club. He's a producer as well.
Behind the camera, McG (Terminator Salvation) directs from a script by Will Staples. Staples co-wrote Without Remorse with Taylor Sheridan, the Tom Clancy movie where Michael B. Jordan plays Navy SEAL John Kelly.
Pratt's been James Reece, a Navy SEAL out for revenge, in Prime Video's The Terminal List, from former SEAL Jack Carr's book series, and all eight episodes of Season 2 have been streaming since October 21st.
Season 2 cranks everything up, and if you're a fan of Jack Carr's books or of Pratt himself, it's a must-see!
This time, Pratt's SEAL has a smaller mission, getting a kid through one pull-up!
I first wrote about the trailer over on ComicBookMovie.com.
The Books Behind Uncle Jake
The Warrior Kid series has grown to include five books. After Way of the Warrior Kid came Marc's Mission, Where There's a Will, Field Manual and Letters from Uncle Jake. There's also a movie tie-in edition of the first one if your kids want Pratt on the cover.
For grown-ups, Willink's big two are leadership books he wrote with Leif Babin, who ran Charlie Platoon under him in Bruiser. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win (2015) draws on Ramadi and SEAL training, and one of its principles is that there are no bad teams, only bad leaders, which the two broke down for Business Insider in 2016. The Dichotomy of Leadership (2018) is about balance, like owning everything while still letting your people lead, or paying attention to the details without getting lost in them.
Willink's leadership books are on my recommend-to-everyone list! I found them during a personal growth and leadership training, and when I came back as a coach, I got them added to the training's core reading. The lessons he and Leif Babin took from leading SEALs in Ramadi changed how I troubleshoot problems, both in my personal life and in my businesses. Trace back how something you did (or didn't) do or say led to a result, ask what you could have done differently, and own it. That's priceless.
Are you going to give Pratt's other SEAL a shot on November 25th? Have you read any of Willink's books, for kids or grown-ups? What do you think?
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