'Ballerina', John Wick spinoff with Ana de Armas, will film this summer

May 2, 2022

The spinoff of the successful action saga starring Keanu Reeves confirms its new leading lady, Ana de Armas, who after James Bond and the upcoming 'The Gray Man', is diving into the genre in a major way.

Ballerina, the John Wick spinoff, will star Ana de Armas, the Cuban actress of international renown who recently premiered No Time to Die, Deep Water and will make a splash on Netflix with The Gray Man. The project, which plans to expand the cinematic universe of the saga led by Keanu Reeves, will begin filming this summer with an expected release in 2023.

Ballerina will tell us the story of a young assassin seeking revenge against the people who killed her family when she was just a child. It should be noted that the character made a fleeting appearance in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum as a ballet dancer who was also training to be an assassin. She didn't have much screen time, she was more of a background secondary character, but it shows just how much this shared universe is expanding stories, characters and events. Len Wiseman (Underworld, Die Hard 4.0) will direct this highly anticipated action thriller, with a screenplay by Shay Hatten, known for his work on films such as the aforementioned third John Wick installment and Zack Snyder's recent Army of the Dead for Netflix.
Ana de Armas

The film will have the support of Lionsgate and producers Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski (the director of the John Wick saga will, on this occasion, be a producer). Deadline reported a few months ago that the film would have a fairly generous budget for this type of spinoff, with an estimated amount of between 50 to 80 million dollars. Hollywood has been cutting budgets for these action films for years, and after the failure of Michael Bay's Ambulance, which has taken a huge hit at the box office, it's quite rare for them to make these kinds of concessions.

The spinoff will cost 80 million dollars and will be directed by the filmmaker behind 'Underworld'

What remains unclear is whether Keanu Reeves will make a fleeting appearance in the film, although there is hope that he and Anjelica Huston herself will have cameos. As for Reeves, we know he will star in some of the craziest sequences in John Wick 4, the next installment in the franchise that had its moment at the recent CinemaCon.