‘Ballerina’ Trailer: Return To The World Of John Wick

Sep 27

From Ryan Cordaro

Kicking off a franchise that works is pretty hard these days, but continuing a franchise is even harder. One of the bigger successes of the last decade or so of a franchise that really isn’t based on previous material is John Wick, which started off as a lower-budget action movie that included Keanu Reeves at a point where he was at a low point in his career. At one point, it was going to skip a theatrical release entirely. Fast forward a decade later, John Wick is one of the most beloved action franchises in recent memory and not only gave a second wind to Reeves’s career but added a new iconic character in John Wick, right alongside Neo. Now, we’ve gotten to the point of spin-offs with the franchise, with its first movie coming out of the possibly-concluded main franchise, Ballerina.

This new spin-off takes place in between the third and fourth John Wick films and follows Eve Macarro, an assassin who trained under the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, who hunts down the people that killed her family. Ruska Roma was introduced in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and albeit without any lines, the character that Ana de Armas is playing appears in Parabellum. While I still think that returning to this franchise is a strange move considering what happened in the last movie, I think that the crew behind those movies and the world they’ve made throughout the four movies are enough for me to show up to the theater for this. Seeing de Armas in an action movie again is nice to see too, especially after how great she was in No Time to Die in her small role. So, either way you slice it, I’ll be there for Ballerina.

The new actors entering the John Wick franchise in Ballerina are Ana de Armas (Knives Out, the upcoming Eden), Gabriel Byrne (Hereditary, The Usual Suspects), Catalina Sandino Moreno (From, Silent Night), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Dune, Earth Mama), and Norman Reedus (The Bikeriders, The Walking Dead). Anjelica Huston (The Addams Family, The Witches), Ian McShane (Deadwood, Kung Fu Panda 4), and the late Lance Reddick (Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, The Legend of Vox Machina) will all play roles in the movie, alongside a special appearance from Keanu Reeves (The Matrix, the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3), who returns as the titular John Wick.