I had the fattest crush on Keira Knightley back when she was in Pirates of the Caribbean. Since the pirates franchise her most notable work has been Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, and Never Let Me Go. Though she was amazing in all three of these movies, she just didn’t have that same sexy flare that lends itself to being in an action film. Well that flare is coming back folks. It has just been confirmed that she will be playing the female lead in the new Jack Ryan film.

For those of you that don’t know: Jack Ryan is a fictional character in a series of books about military warfare and covert operations. These books were written, however, by an actual Navy Seal. There have been some very successful video games, and some films with Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford as well. At last we’re getting a prequel to the films Ben Affleck starred in, and this time with Chris Pine taking the reigns of Jack Ryan. CinemaBland has the scoop on who Knightley’s character will be, and the process of her attaining the part:

“Knightley will be playing Ryan’s wife, who becomes endangered after Ryan discovers a terrorist plot to collapse the United States economy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Knightley was the first actress the studio approached for the part, and they had auditioned the likes of Evangeline Lilly and Felicity Jones before returning to Knightley. She’s the first person besides Pine to be confirmed in the cast, though Kevin Costner was recently rumored for a “co-lead” role as a CIA agent somehow responsible for Ryan’s work.”

Though this American spy film will be directed by an Englishman (Kenneth Branagh), I’m actually very excited to see it. There are rumors that Branagh will also be playing the villain – a Russian –, and his work in My Week With Marilyn certainly proved that he still has his acting chops. And were he not directing, we might not have had the pleasure of Knightley being cast, being that she is as British as they come.