In 2014, John Wick became a sleeper hit, ten years later, it’s the foundation of a whole ass franchise. There have been four John Wick movies, one TV show, and now, the first cinematic spin-off, the awkwardly titled From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. We really have to figure out better naming conventions for franchises.
John Wick: Chapter 3 introduced The Director, played by Anjelica Huston, and her shady company of ballerinas cum assassins. Ballerina introduces Ana de Armas as Eve Macarro, one of these deadly dancers. The trailer for Ballerina begins with Ian McShane as Winston, fully kidnapping a traumatized child in broad daylight to turn her into a dancing assassin. He just walks right out of that building with her! No one says sh-t!
The film also brings back Huston and Lance Reddick, in his final role. Ballerina takes place between John Wick: Chapter 3 and 4, so Keanu Reeves is also returning. Norman Reedus, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Gabriel Byrne are new to the franchise. Ballerina is about Eve avenging her father’s murder, and it feels like a real missed opportunity to not have her rampage after someone killed her cat. Though with the exception of Daisy the ill-fated puppy, the John Wick movies are more about animals working with humans for maximum mayhem, than committing more animal crimes.
Ballerina is due next June. I’m very curious to see what the value of “the world of John Wick” really is without Keanu—not many people watched The Continental. Yes, he appears in this film, but it’s not about John Wick, and while the idea of a fifth movie is being kicked around, ideally, Lionsgate would like this to be a self-sustaining franchise that doesn’t need Keanu in every movie to keep going. The world is big enough to support it, you could easily have “world of John Wick” movies set anywhere and featuring any number of assassins bent on revenge. But is that what people want from John Wick? Or was it really about Keanu all along?
