Fans of the John Wick franchise have good reasons to join. Tea Ana de Armas –led spin off Ballerina will start production in the coming week, TV Line has reported. The announcement was made by Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer during the latest investors’ call. The future prospect for the franchise looks good as among other franchise-related news it has been announced that Colin Woodell-led three-part prequel series The Continental will stream internationally on Amazon Prime outside the US and the studio is also “fielding proposals” for a big video game based on the Keanu Reeves movies.
The news came out last year that the No Time To Die star has been tapped for the lead role in Ballerina movie, which will follow a young assassin trained at the ballet school seen in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The story follows her quest for revenge against those who killed her family. The feature will be helmed by underworld manager Len Wiseman who directs from a script by Shay Hattenwho is known for features like Zack Snyder‘s army of the dead and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. De Armas disclosed in an interview earlier this year that Emerald Fennellthe Oscar-Winning writer-director behind 2020s Promising Young Woman has provided the final touches to the script from a woman’s point of view. This is all that is really known about the revenge-fueled film, with no additional cast members announced yet.
De Armas has proven her action chops in No Time to Die as well as the recently released Russo Brother’s Netflix movie The Gray Man where she starred alongside Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. The Knives Out star was last seen in Blonde hairdirected by Andrew Dominickbased on the 2000 novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. The movie showcased a fictionalized tale of the life and career of Marilyn Monroe, while the movie did not sit well with the audience, De Armas has been widely appreciated for completely getting into the skin of the Hollywood icon. With her career full of fan-favorite notable features like blade runner 2049and Deep Water among others there’s no doubt that the actor can carry the action franchise. Coupled with talents like Wiseman, Hatten, and Fennell, Ballerina is going to be as exciting as the original franchise.
First released in 2014, the success of Reeves-led John Wick catapulted into two sequels, John Wick: Chapter 2and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. After Parabellum became the highest-grossing film of the franchise in just 10 days garnering $326 million worldwide, a fourth and fifth installment were announced. Given the talent behind Ballerinaboth on and off-screen, the movie can aim to repeat the success of the original franchise.
No release date has been revealed yet for Ballerina. You can check out our interview with the Chapter 4 manager Chad Stahelski below:
