When the screenwriter Derek Kolstad first began shopping John Wick around Hollywood in the early 2010s, it was titled Scorn, and only lightly resembled the pulpy neo-western it would eventually become. Wick himself was written as an elderly hitman taking revenge on the criminals who had murdered his equally elderly dog. His body count was low. He liked to talk. It was only after Keanu Reeves expressed interest in the movie that Scorn became John Wick, and John Wick got Keanu-fied. Reams of the character’s dialogue were excised, all the better to help Reeves glide through the movie like a ghost. The old dog was transformed into a tiny puppy, all the better for Reeves to cradle it gently and adorably in his arms. And the body count grew high. Real high.
The resulting John Wick movies – four in total, plus a TV miniseries and now a big-screen spin-off starring Ana de Armas – became a $3bn-and-counting phenomenon. They rescued Reeves from a run of duds (among them 47 Ronin, Man of Tai Chi and the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still), and cemented the actor as our most sensitive action superstar – a man of few words but absolutely astounding high-kicks. Surrounding him have been sublime world-building, dazzling practical stuntwork, and a huge amount of memorable set pieces. While many of Tom Cruise’s gravity-defying exploits in the recent Mission: Impossible movies tend to blur together, you will absolutely remember Wick speedily riding a horse through the streets of Manhattan, or using a library book as a weapon, or repeatedly tumbling down the steps of Paris’s Sacré Coeur. Now, though, the franchise faces an existential crisis as it looks into its future: what is John Wick without its leading man?
In Ballerina, De Armas plays an assassin trained in the art of barre as well as shooting people dead – her clan having previously been glimpsed in 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Originally conceived as a straight spin-off project, the movie has undergone several rounds of tinkering since De Armas first signed on to it back in 2021. Filming wrapped in early 2023 under director Len Wiseman (of Underworld fame), before at least three months of reshoots were ordered in 2024, this time under the direction of Chad Stahelski, the filmmaker behind the original John Wick films. “[The studio] looked at it,” blabbed co-star Ian McShane during an appearance on The One Show last year, “and Chad’s come in ... They want to make it better.”
Alongside much of the original cut reportedly having been binned, Reeves’s involvement in Ballerina – whose events take place between John Wick 3 and 4 – has gone from a fan-servicing cameo to an essential component of its promotion. When the film was first announced, there was uncertainty about whether the actor would even appear in it, particularly with Reeves expressing his interest in retiring the character after his fourth movie, which was released in 2023. Today, though, Ballerina is being marketed with the pre-title “From the World of John Wick”, while Reeves’s face takes up nearly half as much space as that of De Armas on the film’s poster. He is glimpsed extensively in the film’s trailers, too – despite, according to reports, having only being on set for a handful of days. And Reeves was kindly on hand at Ballerina’s London premiere last week. In certain photos, De Armas – much like the movie she’s in – seems to be clinging on to his arm for dear life.
The film’s studio, Lionsgate, clearly have a lot at stake when it comes to the John Wick universe, with the franchise being one of their few reliable cash cows in the wake of high-profile flops such as last year’s Borderlands and their doomed reboot of The Crow. But there’s a touch of desperation – and only short-term gain – in the level of importance placed on Reeves in how Ballerina is being sold. Coupled with the studio’s bizarre decision – which was swiftly backtracked – to bar “critical social sentiment and formal reviews” of the film until 4 June, yet allow “spoiler-free enthusiasm” to be published on social media within hours of its early press screenings, it gives Ballerina the air of an expensive misfire that’s throwing everything at the wall at the 11th hour. (Early word, I should add, suggests that the film is by no means a disaster.)
In fairness to Lionsgate, you can’t really blame them for feeling anxious about John Wick’s Reeves-less future. Much as is the case with Nicolas Cage or Tom Cruise, Reeves’s power as an actor lies in his relative lack of range – his stoicism, his sensitivity, his slight weirdness. Which is exactly why John Wick works as a character, too. These are movies shaped around Reeves’s stardom. Take him out of the equation, and the likeable, darkly comedic efficiency of the movies gets lost. The short-lived, Wick-free and inexplicably Mel Gibson-filled TV spin-off The Continental, for instance, was an overstuffed, exposition-heavy and visually drab mistake in 2023. It was crying out for a little levity, a little Reeves.
Lionsgate seem to have learnt their lesson there, but only to a point. A second spin-off film is in the works, to follow a character portrayed by Donnie Yen who was introduced in John Wick: Chapter 4, alongside an animated prequel that will see Reeves return to voice Wick. Despite the critical and commercial rejection of The Continental, another TV series is in development. And remember how Wick died at the end of his fourth movie? Forget all about that, as a John Wick 5 is being developed, with Reeves and Stahelski reportedly returning – though neither of them, intriguingly, has commented on the news as of yet.
Part of me hopes that this announcement – made by Lionsgate chief Adam Fogelson – was premature. Entirely inaccurate, even. Because it’s disappointing to see one of modern Hollywood’s most unexpected success stories become just another exhausted franchise being run into the ground. Especially one that has always been so tightly linked to its star, a man who’s previously been very smart about when to say goodbye to a project. When he turned down Speed 2, he wisely avoided pegging his name to a famously insipid sequel. It was creatively astute but professionally costly: Reeves has since spoken about being more or less blacklisted (put in “movie jail”) for his unwillingness to play ball. Through this lens, his decision to keep returning to John Wick might make more sense.
In any case, it seems that John Wick movies won’t live or die by Reeves’s involvement – the churn will churn, whether we like it or not. But it’s probably worth asking if they ought to. John Wick has never been afraid to let bodies fall like dominoes; maybe it’s better to let some corpses stay dead.
‘Ballerina’ is in cinemas from 6 June
