The Ballerina’s Kicks Are Deadly in New John Wick Spin-Off
Image Courtesy of Lionsgate
By Luis Zonenberg
For the last decade, there has been a resurgence in the realm of action films, thanks in part to the John Wick franchise. With its emphasis on epic stunt work and simple, but brutally efficient storytelling, it has become a trailblazing phenomenon that has captured the hearts and minds of audiences around the world. It has even inspired other filmmakers to take a crack at this formula and develop films like Extraction or The Fall Guy.
But with the title character’s apparent death in the last entry, does it spell some uncertainty for the franchise going forward? We may have our answer in the form of Ballerina, a new John Wick spin-off featuring Ana DeArmas as the title character. Despite the character having a brief cameo in John Wick 3: Parabellum, she was recast with Ana DeArmas playing her now. The story centers on Eve Macarro as she trains to be an assassin so she can begin her quest for vengeance. She will embark on a blood-soaked quest in order to avenge her father, which is in no way similar to Inigo Montaya’s quest from The Princess Bride.
As is typical though of a John Wick film, we care less about the story and more about the ensemble action-set pieces for us to indulge in throughout. And judging by the making of this film, that might be why we’re getting it this late. For those of you who don’t know, this film was actually supposed to be released in June of this year. It was delayed only a few months before its initial release date. It seems that after the strikes were over, a couple of reshoots occurred back in February that intensively focused on incorporating more action scenes, with the original John Wick director Chad Stahelski there to oversee them as well.
This brings me back to my original question of will this franchise be a success following the last film? Judging by the release schedule, it seems that they might have reshot some key action scenes to make them more fluid and in tone with the other entries. And on top of that, we even have returning actors Ian McShane, Angelica Huston, the late Lance Reddick, and yes, even Keanu Reeves as John Wick. Judging by the familiar supporting cast and reshoots, it seems that they’re trying to add in some more pillars at the base to support this film in case it suffers a fate akin to Lionsgates’ disastrous Crow remake.
It’s hard to judge at this rate what the outcome might be, but I would not be eager to toss the stake in just yet. While reshoots are usually a sign that things might go south, they have done us many favors in the past. The best case of it working was with Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One back in 2016. Judging by the original layout, some key scenes were majorly rewritten and reshot in order to make the story flow better. And one of those key scenes just happened to be the hallway scene featuring the ever so awesome Darth Vader. Had they not reshot the movie, fans would have missed out on what has been said to be the best scene of the movie.
Despite the character having a brief cameo in John Wick 3: Parabellum, she was recast with Ana DeArmas now playing her, arguably due to her success with her role in the James Bond film No Time to Die. Keeping this in mind, I will say that this actually looks and acts more like a John Wick entry than the Continental TV spin-off we got last year. So I hold it in hopes that the team is micromanaging the project and are working hard to tweak whatever they can in hopes of continuing this franchise on a satisfying note. Though whether it will reach the success they’re hoping for is anyone’s guess. We will have to play the waiting game for now and see what unfolds when it finally comes out next summer.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025) Official Trailer – Ana de Armas
