Posted in: Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Ballerina, john wick

Ballerina: Ana de Armas Teases The Journey We'll Be Goin In With Eve

Ballerina is the first big screen spin-off film in the John Wick universe, and star Ana de Armas is teasing the journey we'll be going on with her character, Eve.

When the bare bones concept of John Wick was released to the world, it was clowned on almost immediately because it sounded like a regular revenge story but replaced a dead family member with a dead dog. However, it worked because the world this idea was placed into was just so good. So when it was announced that they were working on a spin-off film called Ballerina, no one should be surprised when they heard that Eve, played by Ana de Armas, doesn't exactly have the most original-sounding backstory. She wants revenge on the people who killed her father, something we have seen play out across so many films with sons and mothers, daughters and fathers, and every combination you could imagine. The execution of this is everything, and de Armas spoke to Collider during CCXP and teased the journey we'll be going on with Eve in Ballerina. 

"Eve, as a very young girl, witnesses her father being killed by a group of people, and it's the only family member she knows so far, so everything is taken away from her," de Armas replied. "She's being enlisted by the Ruska Roma, so she starts this ballerina training. Then, we'll see how that turns into fight training, and we'll see her coming into who she will be as an adult, as an assassin. She really wants to get into this world with the hope of finding the people who did this to her dad.

"And yes, the transformation throughout the movie is really interesting because it is initially about revenge and finding these people, but it has a beautiful turn," de Armas continued. "Along the way, she starts finding secrets and things about her family and her past, and it turns into something more noble about making a difference or making a change."

The world of John Wick and its worldbuilding is the backbone that has made this franchise the thing that it is today, so if you are worried that Eve sounds generic, that's probably on purpose because the world around her and how they execute what could be generic story beats is what we're here for. Ballerina will just be proof as to whether or not the worldbuilding is strong enough to work without Keanu Reeves as the anchor.

Ballerina Is The First Big Screen Spin-Off Of John Wick

It's still a little amazing that John Wick, the action movie in 2014 where the only real notable thing about it was that they managed to snag Reeves as its leading man, has turned into the franchise juggernaut it is today. That is what happens when you have good people working on a film from the beginning because it would have been easy for John Wick to fade into obscurity with a ton of other disposable action movies. However, the creative team of director Chad Stahelski and screenwriter Derek Kolstad took the time to build a fascinating world around that action movie. The world of John Wick is the thing that everyone fell in love with on top of the fact that Reeves is the best at this.

So it wasn't surprising that a sequel was greenlit, and it was even less surprising that in 2017, it was announced that a spin-off film and television show were in the works. The Continental focused on the hotel that plays a central part in the assassin world that John Wick moves in, and Ballerina will be something different. Len Wiseman was brought on to direct, with Wiseman & Shay Hatten, and Emerald Fennell working on the screenplay. Hatten also has a story credit. The cast includes de Armas and returning John Wick players Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, and Lance Reddick. We also have some new faces, including Norman Reedus, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Gabriel Byrne. A brief summary has been released, "Taking place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the film follows Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), who is beginning her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma." From The World of John Wick: Ballerina is set to be released on June 6, 2025.

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