Ana De Armas stars in the absurdly titled From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, because, you guessed it, someone killed her family and now she needs to get revenge. The spin-off’s first trailer is out, complete with a cameo from the Baba Yaga himself, Keanu Reeves.
Set between John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, John Wick: Ballerina is about the assassin Eve Macarro hunting down the murderers of her family. That entails a trip to The Continental, gun shopping, and lots of other familiar sights from the gun-fu neo-noir series. The movie is set to arrive in the summer of 2025 ahead of an eventual John Wick: Chapter 5.
Here’s the trailer:
It begins with Ian McShane collecting the young, orphaned Eve Macarro and whisking her off to “a school where they teach dances.” We then skip ahead to her showing up at The Continental many years later to find out why tragedy befell her all that time ago. Come for posthumous glimpse of Lance Reddick’s concierge Charon and stay for the top-down, Pokémon-style flamethrower vs. water hose battle. Eventually Macarro encounters Reeves’ John Wick and the trailer ends on a suggestion of him training her in his more boutique brand of deadly arts, AKA how to get shot and stabbed for 90 minutes and still kick everyone’s ass.
What started as intriguing but limited fantasy-infused underworld lorebuilding in the original John Wick has burgeoned into a full cinematic universe. In addition to the existing four movies, there’s also a not very good TV series on Peacock called The Continental starring Colin Woodell and Mel Gibson. Much better is John Wick Hex, the 2019 tactical RPG that includes performances from Ian McShane and Lance Reddick.
We’ll see where John Wick: Ballerina falls when it arrives next year. It will be far from the first time Reeves has acted alongside de Armas. She was one of two women who erotically tortured him in 2015’s Knock Knock, which includes one of the most iconic monologues of Reeves’ career.