Producer Erica Lee reveals that Ballerina was not initially a John Wick spinoff film. Set between John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and the current John Wick: Chapter 4, the movie will middle on Ana de Armas’ Rooney, a talented dancer and skilled murderer in search of revenge in opposition to those that murdered her household. Along with De Armas, Ballerina, premiering in 2024, will function appearances by Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, and Anjelica Huston.
Throughout an interview with Collider, Lee defined how the upcoming film grew to become a John Wick spinoff. She revealed that the choice took place after studying Shay Hatten’s spec script, including that it was developed to suit throughout the franchise. The producer additionally famous that the method started previous to filming John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, calling it a “consistently evolving ecosystem.” Learn Lee’s feedback concerning Ballerina beneath:
“Yeah. It is humorous, Ballerina was kind of a very long time coming, additionally. Shay Hatten was like an intern for Robert Downey Jr., I had a normal assembly with him, he was an enormous John Wick fan, and he wrote Ballerina in a vacuum, like as a spec script. He gave it to me, I wish to say 5 years in the past, and I learn it and was like, ‘Okay.’ It was an murderer, Rooney, it was a feminine character, however we optioned it and we’re like, ‘Let’s again this into [the] John Wick universe.’
“Then we began growing and making it extra Wick. However this was earlier than we would even shot John Wick 3. [There have] been iterations alongside the way in which, and as we continue to learn extra concerning the universe and creating new characters and refining the Wick world, that kind of enters its manner into Ballerina. So, even a yr in the past, after we have been engaged on the script, it was like, ‘Okay, Winston was kind of there, and the Charon character, and Anjelica Huston, The Director’s character,’ but it surely was like, ‘What do we all know now? What’s the state of The Continental? What’s the timeline? How are we breaking it? What are the reference factors we will use?’ Ballerina is that this consistently evolving ecosystem of a film. It is simply been actually enjoyable to work on.”
How Ballerina Connects To John Wick
Whereas De Armas’ character in Ballerina can be an murderer introduced up within the Ruska Roma, in contrast to John Wick, she shouldn’t be working away from something. In terms of her position within the franchise, Rooney was beforehand seen in 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, acting on stage in entrance of The Director (Huston) earlier than John’s arrival. Then portrayed by dancer Unity Phelan, one noticeable function of hers have been the tattoos on her again and arms, much like John’s.
As a result of it’s a John Wick spinoff, a number of motion is predicted, as are the appearances by franchise stars. Whereas particular story particulars stay below wraps, the cameos from Reeves and others will function extra connective threads, particularly contemplating a few of these characters are alive in John Wick: Chapter 4. Together with John and The Director, Winston Scott (McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddick) have roles within the upcoming movie.
Although not initially linked to John Wick, it’s attention-grabbing to find out about how Ballerina got here to be and what the method of making the spinoff was like. As John Wick: Chapter 4 continues to show the franchise’s reputation, it’s potential that this film might turn out to be a sequence of its personal. These desperate to see De Armas and Reeves collectively on display screen can you should definitely try Ballerina subsequent yr.
Supply: Collider