“Ballerina” A High Octane, Action-Packed Addition to “John Wick” Universe

The “John Wick” franchise has been entertaining us with its insane action and intense moments since 2014. It’s also hard to believe that the first movie was so close to being released straight to DVD. Now, it was only a matter of time before the franchise would start branching out with theatrical spin-offs.

In the spin-off “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” trained in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma, Eve Macarro takes on an army of killers as she seeks revenge against those responsible for the death of her father.

The “John Wick” series has never failed to disappoint. It’s one of those rare film series that get better with each installment. Now, while its first theatrical spin-off, “Ballerina,” starts off a little slow, it doesn’t really take long to get things going.

“Ballerina” delivers quite a few non-stop action sequences that are incredibly fun to watch and a few twists and turns that you might see coming. This backstory of a new character is really intriguing and will keep “John Wick” fans satisfied right until the very end.

Just like the other movies in the franchise, “Ballerina” has quite a few action-packed moments that are highly entertaining and memorable. Besides the nightclub fight scene (which is practically a staple of the series now), there’s a rather unique and kind of humorous scene involving Eve and an unnamed character using dinner plates as weapons

The stand-out action-packed moment definitely occurs towards the end where we see Eve and another assassin fighting each other with flamethrowers. That’s right - flamethrowers. This entire sequence takes place throughout many locations and this visually captivating action scene should really excite all “John Wick” fans.

“Ballerina” also does a fairly decent job exploring more of the John Wick world. Throughout this movie, we learn more about the Ruska Roma organization that appears in the third and fourth movies. We also get to see a few familiar faces from the series, such as Winston Scott (the head of the New York Continental and who watches over Eva just like he did with Wick), Chevon (played for the last time by the late Lance Reddick), and, of course John Wick in a couple scenes. 

“Ballerina” is a worthy addition to the “John Wick” universe that fans of the series should easily enjoy. This spin-off has some impressive action, an emotionally-driven story and a great introduction to the new character Eve Macarro (who is also another good addition to the series).

Cast: Ana de Armas (Eve); Keanu Reeves (John Wick); Ian McShane (Winston); Anjelica Houston (The Director); Catalina Sandino Moreno (Lana); Juliet Doherty (Tatiana); Ava Joyce McCarthy (Ella); Norma Reedus (Daniel Pine); Lance Reddick (Chevon); Gabriel Byrne (The Chancellor).

Writer/director: Shay Hatten (writer) (Netflix’s Rebel Moon Parts 1 and 2; John Wick: Chapter 4; Netflix’s Army of the Dead); Len Wiseman (director) (Total Recall - 2012 remake; Live Free or Die Hard; Underworld: Evolution).

Trivia: This movie takes place between John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4. In July 2017, Lionsgate acquired Hatten’s action thriller script “Ballerina,” which itself was inspired when Hatten viewed the trailer to “John Wick 2.” After the script was acquired, the studio and the writer slowly reworked it into the franchise.

MPA” Rated R for strong/bloody violence throughout, and language   (runtime 124 minutes)

Make sure to check my Wyoming County Press Examiner reviews page on Facebook to see what I am working on next on the review front! And, speaking of what I have coming up, here’s a look at what I am planning for the 6/25 edition of the Examiner - “How To Train Your Dragon”; “Toy Story” (30th anniversary); “National Treasure” (since the movie involves the Declaration of Independence and the 4th of July is coming up); “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” (a reboot of the “Hellboy” series that I didn’t know existed); Hulu’s “Predator: Killer of Killers.”

• Second to last role for Lance Reddick before his unexpected death.

• Norman Reedus was in-between filming seasons of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon so he had to keep the eponymous character's trademark hairstyle.

• This film takes place between John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023).

• According to the Wrap, Chad Stahelski reshot most of the film after disapproving of Len Wiseman's original cut. Reshoots took place in Prague for two to three months, without Wiseman's involvement. One insider said, "Of course Chad had to clean up someone else's mess. Remember, this film is basically 'John Wick 3.5.' This story happens before 'John Wick 4' and after that film, they can't have a failure in anything 'Wick' related."

• In October 2019, Len Wiseman was hired to direct Ballerina. Lady Gaga was rumored to be attached to star in the film, and in May 2020 Chloë Grace Moretz was also in talks as one of studio's choices for the lead. In October 2021, Ana de Armas went into negotiations about starring in the film, and in April 2022 it was officially announced how she would star in it. Principal photography was originally scheduled to start in summer of 2022, but instead it started in November. The film went into post production by February 2023, and in March producer Erica Lee said how they already had plans for a sequel. In April 2023, composers Marco Beltrami and Anna Drubich were working on the score for the film, which was already set to be released in summer of 2024. In September 2023 interviews, Wiseman said how he completed his director's cut of the film.

  
  

• Then, around October 2023, is when the first insider rumors started about how the film is a "mess". In February 2024, it was officially announced how the film will be delayed from its original June 2024 release and moved entire year later, to June 2025, eight years after the original script was written, and two and a half years after the original filming. Initially, reason for this was said to be in order to add more action sequences to the film, and how Wiseman will be working with producer Chad Stahelski on additional scenes. A few days later actor, Ian McShane said in an interview how the film will be actually going through much bigger extensive re-shoots than what was originally said, and how it's due to underwhelming first cut and because Stahelski and others want to "make it better" and "protect the series." In March 2024, a couple of new characters played by David Castañeda and Sharon Duncan-Brewster were added during re-shoots. In June 2024, Norman Reedus mentioned in an interview for Collider how he finished shooting additional fight scenes during re-shoots, and how he had to travel from Japan to Budapest where re-shoots were being filmed, and then back to Japan.

  
  

• In July 2024, rumors about Wiseman's director's cut not being as good as studio and producers expected it to be were further confirmed when reports about test screening of an earlier cut of the film were leaked. It was described as "catastrophic", and it was also mentioned how the film might be a "series killer." The test audiences leaked reactions all mentioned how the film is a "borderline imitation of the John Wick movies, but messier and done via a female assassin perspective", and also how it's "tonally inconsistent" and "poorly directed."

  
  

• In September 2024, right around the same time the film's first official trailer was released, Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard, who previously scored the music for all four John Wick films, were hired to compose completely new score for the film after the re-shoots and re-edits it went through, and after Beltrami and Drubich's score from Wiseman's original director's cut was rejected.

  
  

• In October 2024, The Wrap confirmed the leaks about how Stahelski was more or less "ghost directing" the film during re-shoots, instead of helping Wiseman, as earlier official reports mentioned. Based on what multiple sources said, Wiseman wasn't even brought back on set while they were filming re-shoots in Prague, and Stahelski directed all the re-shoots himself, which lasted for three months. This also ended up causing issues with Stahelski's Highlander reboot starring Henry Cavill, it was delayed and the development on it had to be pushed back for five months due to all the problems with Ballerina and Stahelski's involvement in re-shooting and changing what turned out to be most of the film. The delays lasted for so long that Cavill ended up accepting the role in Voltron for Amazon MGM, since this ended up clearing his schedule enough to do another project. Lionsgate however denied this, and claimed how Wiseman only left due to some "serious health issue", but later returned to work with Stahelski on re-shoots which they said lasted for only one month, despite other news reports which all mentioned actors working on re-shoots between March and June of 2024.

  
  

• Also in October 2024, Ballerina had another test screening, and this time the scores and reactions from test audiences on new cut of the film, after Stahelski's re-shoots, were reported to have "skyrocketed significantly" and earned much more positive response, specially compared to Wiseman's cut of the film.

  
  

• In November 2024, Wiseman said in an interview for Empire that the film didn't had any re-shoots, and instead it just had "additional photography", and how it was to add scenes which were previously cut from the script due to "budget constraints". Wiseman made no comment about previous official confirmed reports how the film did in fact went through three months worth of re-shoots directed by Stahelski and not him, which included adding new cast members, replacing the original score for the film, and changing most of it, and not just adding new scenes.

  
  

• In January 2025 interview for Collider, De Armas and McShane mentioned how their characters had a fight scene in Continental, during which she would try to get some information from him, and she only stops once she realizes he's on her side, but the whole scene was cut, most likely during re-shoots and re-edits of the film. McShane mentioned how he was "furious" that this fight scene was cut out.

• Shay Hatten wrote the original screenplay draft as a standalone feature film.