Originally slated for next month, fans of John Wick and of Keanu Reeves learned at the end of last year that the next film, the fourth opus relating the adventures of the famous repentant hitman, would not be released before 2023. However, we know that other projects are in production, which will then extend the universe of John Wick beyond the character of Keanu Reeves, with in particular a new movie of which we know the featured.
another john wick spin-off
During his presentation at this year’s CinemaCon, Lionsgate has announced the cast of their next film, Ballerina, as well as the name of its next star. The studio also confirmed that Len Wisemanknown for having made underworld (2003) as well as the remake of Total Recall (2012), would direct the film from a script by Shay Hattenwho has already worked on the previous opus of John Wickbut also on Zack Snyder’s last two films released last year, Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves.
The production of this spin-off film, titled Ballerinaexpected to start this summer, and it seems that the actress Ana de Armas has been chosen to have the main role, thus officially entering the cinematographic universe that began with the John Wick series. True to the genre, this spin-off will tell the story of a young female assassin seeking revenge on the people who killed her family.
Ballerina been first announced in July 2017 after Lionsgate won a bidding war for the film. At the time, the film was described as being in “the vein of Nikita (1990)… but with a pulpier and hyper-stylized genre à la Quentin Tarantino or Matthew Vaughn”. The studio bought the screenplay in order to incorporate the characters and the universe of John Wick, in order to make it the first spin-off film of the franchise.
the beginnings of the Wick-verse?
The first direct links with Ballerina were seen in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), which introduced the Director, played by Anjelica Huston. Head of the crime syndicate called the Ruska Roma, the Director oversees a program in New York that trains young athletes, such as wrestlers and ballet dancers, to become assassins. The scene was included in John Wick 3 to help set up the next spin-off, but it’s not yet known if Huston will reprise his role. in Ballerina.
Wiseman signed on to direct the film in October 2019, and Armas was rumored to be cast in the lead role last October. The Cuban-Spanish actress has slowly built up an impressive resume since taking on English-speaking roles, like in the movie Knock-Knock (2015). She will also make a notable appearance in the latest James Bond, Dying can waitwith the role of Paloma, and we can also see it on Netflix in the movie The Gray Manalongside Ryan Gosling (with whom the actress had previously starred in blade runner 2049) and Chris Evans, scheduled for this year.
And the John Wick universe will continue to expand beyond Ballerina. Lionsgate Television and Starz are working on the series The Continentalwhich will focus on young Winston Scott, decades before the events of the first John Wick (2014).
