Many of us saw this coming. Lionsgate‘s John Wick spinoff “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas, just had this “catastrophic” screening. I’m hearing the movie might be a “franchise killer.”
“Ballerina” is said to be a “borderline imitation” of the ‘John Wick’ movies, but messier and done via a “female assassin” perspective. The lore of the trilogy looms large here, and there’s “no running around the fact that it’s tonally inconsistent” and “poorly directed.”
If you remember, “Ballerina” had been delayed by a year from June 7, 2024 to June 6, 2025. ‘John Wick’ architect Chad Stahelski then agreed with Lionsgate to oversee production on the film. Supposedly, Stahelski then decided to shadow “Ballerina” director Len Wiseman on “additional action sequences” during reshoots on the film.
It was reported that David Castañeda and Sharon Duncan-Brewster had been added to the cast of “Ballerina.” Yes, they added new characters during these reshoots, that weren’t previously part of the original script.
Ian McShane, who stars in “Ballerina” was recently a guest on BBC’s The One Show and tackled these reshoots. The veteran actor implied that “Ballerina” was just not good enough and that they had to shoot entirely new sequences with another director (Stahelski). According to him, we shouldn’t call them reshoots, they are actually “newshoots.”
We’re going to Budapest. It’s not reshoots, it’s new shoots […] obviously, they’ve got to protect the franchise. We shot the movie a year ago. Chad [Stahelski] came in … and they want to make it better because you have to protect the franchise.
So many cool characters from the John Wick universe - especially Donny Yen’s character - and they still couldn’t figure out something that worked. Cool settings, lore, and world building, only to ultimately succumb to corporate greed trodding over a beloved IP (most likely). Sigh.
I’m not even sure it is greed, the end of JW4 set up the next film - Caine vs Akira. A cat-and-mouse chase across continents with her fired up by vengeance and him reluctant to fight her because he knows is right in her own way. Then Anita involved Caine’s daughter, precipitating the final showdown in which Akira realises she has become just as bad as Caine and backs off from the killing blow. At which point Caine strikes and she is forced to fight or die. The winner (likely Akira) gets to lead the franchise for the next few films, probably wracked with guilt, walking the Earth like Caine (the other one) perhaps hoping to do enough good deeds to.assuage their guilt.
I’d watch that.