When it comes to discussing franchises, there is a vast lexicon of terms that can be used to describe different installments. We live in an age where there are far more than just simple sequels: there are spinoffs, prequels, crossovers, team-ups, capstones, legacyquels, reboots, retcons, and more. It provides modern filmmakers with a lot of creative options when it comes to adding to an existing canon, and it’s something that director Len Wiseman very much appreciates when it came to making his new action movie Ballerina starring Ana de Armas.
Ballerina is a title that expands the breadth of the ever-growing John Wick universe (which announced a number of other exciting in-the-works projects a few weeks ago), and it sits in an interesting position within the continuity. When I spoke with the film’s director earlier this year during a press day at 87Eleven Action Design, he explained how the movie slots into the timeline of the action franchise and noted that it’s something a bit different than your standard sequel or spinoff. Said Wiseman,
It takes place between Chapter Three and Chapter Four. It was a fun journey to find how it, how it intertwines with three. It was also more interesting to me of like doing that than in say a spinoff, because it's really more of a parallel story within that same world during chapter three and also how John Wick intervenes with our timeline. So I was more attracted to that because it was not like a sequel or a spinoff. It was definitely in that world within the thing.
Audiences who have seen John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum have gotten an early look into the part of the canon world that will be further explored in Ballerina. In the 2019 movie, the titular Keanu Reeves character is looking for safe harbor as he is being hunted by every assassin on Earth, and he finds it in a theater with an old acquaintance known as The Director (Anjelica Huston). It’s during the sequence at this location that we learn of a program that simultaneously trains young women to be both dancers and killers – and it’s here that Ana de Armas’s Eve Macarro enters the picture.
The story in Ballerina essentially uses this sequence as a launching pad, and while it unfurls principally with Eve on a solo mission of personal vengeance, the plot also eventually sees her cross paths with the legendary Baba Yaga as he is gearing up for what audiences got to witness in 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4. It’s a cool twist for fans who enjoying marathoning their favorite franchises in special watch orders.
Further solidifying it within the John Wick franchise, Ballerina not only features Keanu Reeves’ return as the world’s most dangerous assassin and Anjelica Huston reprising her role as The Director, but it also has Ian McShane back as Winston Scott and Lance Reddick delivering is final performance as Continental Hotel concierge Charon. Long in the works, Ballerina will be arriving in theaters everywhere on June 6.
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