Description

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (or simply Ballerina) is an upcoming American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten. It is the fifth film in the John Wick franchise, serving as a spin-off set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023).

It stars Ana de Armas in the lead role, alongside Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus in supporting roles. Anjelica Huston, Lance Reddick (in his final screen appearance), Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves reprise their roles from the previous films.

Lionsgate acquired Hatten’s spec script for the film in 2017, leading to him contributing to the final script for Parabellum and serving as the lead writer for Chapter 4. In October 2019, Wiseman was hired as director, with Chad Stahelski confirmed as a producer by May 2020. Ballerina was officially announced in April 2022,

with de Armas confirmed to be replacing Unity Phelan, who portrayed the character in Parabellum, in the lead role; by that December, the rest of the main cast was rounded out. Principal photography began soon after, taking place in Prague, Czech Republic. Additional action sequences were shot starting in February 2024.

Ballerina is scheduled to be released on June 6, 2025.

Taking place between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Chapter 4, Eve Macarro, a ballerina-assassin, begins to train in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma and sets out to exact revenge for her father’s death.

• Ana de Armas as Eve Macarro, a ballerina who is beginning to train in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma. According to co-star Ian McShane, the character is under the protection of Winston and Charon in the New York Continental Hotel during the course of the film.
• Anjelica Huston as the Director
• Gabriel Byrne as the Chancellor, the main antagonist of the film who leads a town against Eve.
• Lance Reddick as Charon, the concierge at the Continental Hotel in New York and friend of Winston Scott and acquaintance of John Wick. This was Reddick’s final appearance as Charon, and overall final on-screen appearance released posthumously.
• Catalina Sandino Moreno
• Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine, a mysterious man.
•  Reedus admired Keanu Reeves due to the demanding, « I-need-a-bottle-of-Advil-all-day-long type of job » the film series was. Reedus contrasted the tightly choreographed fight scenes in the film from the « loose » and « sloppy » ones in his series The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023–present).
• Ian McShane as Winston Scott, the enigmatic owner of the Continental Hotel and friend of John Wick.
• Keanu Reeves as John Wick, a professional hitman and legendary assassin who has gained a reputation for his skills and is on the run from the High Table.

Sharon Duncan-Brewster appears as Nogi, Eve’s mentor. while David Castañeda also appears.

In July 2017, Lionsgate Films acquired Shay Hatten‘s action thriller Ballerina, with Thunder Road Films producing the film with Hatten rewriting the script to be a part of the John Wick franchise, with the concepts of Ballerina ultimately being written into the third main film, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), with a ballerina portrayed by Unity Phelan making an appearance.

At the end of the year, the script was voted onto The Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2017.

By October 2019, Len Wiseman was hired to direct the film.

 In May 2020, it was reported that the studio was looking for an actress to star in the film, with Chloë Grace Moretz as the template for the kind of talent they were looking for.

Stahelski met with Wiseman, and approached executives to hire the filmmaker. He confirmed that he and his team will work closely with Wiseman on the action sequences and stunts for the film, while acknowledging that Wiseman’s filmmaking style will add variety to the franchise. At that point, Wiseman and Hatten were working on a newer draft of the script.

By October 2021, Ana de Armas entered negotiations to play the titular character, a ballerina-assassin.^[22] By April 2022, Lionsgate officially announced the film at CinemaCon, and said that de Armas would star in the lead role.^[23] In July 2022, Emerald Fennell was hired to contribute to the script as one of its writers.

Initially scheduled to commence in summer 2022, principal photography officially began on November 7, 2022, in Prague, Czech Republic.^[25][14][26] Throughout the month and in early December, it was announced that Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, and Lance Reddick had joined the cast and will reprise their roles from previous films of the franchise; as John Wick, Winston Scott, « the Director », and Charon, respectively;

Throughout December, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, and Gabriel Byrne joined the supporting cast in undisclosed roles.

During filming, Reeves was not able to adjust his shooting schedule to accept Lucasfilm‘s offer to play Jedi Master Sol in the Disney+ limited Star Wars series The Acolyte (2024), resulting in that part going to Lee Jung-jae instead.^[30] Ballerina was in post-production in February 2023.

 In February 2024, producer Chad Stahelski was working on additional action sequences for the film with director Len Wiseman. By March, David Castañeda and Sharon Duncan-Brewster joined the cast.

Reportedly, Stahelski oversaw two to three months of reshoots, refilming the majority of the movie, with Wiseman not present on set.Star Norman Reedus traveled from Japan to film his added fight scenes in Budapest.

By April 2023, Marco Beltrami and Anna Drubich were hired as the composers; Beltrami had previously worked with Wiseman on Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Live Free or Die Hard (2007).

Later, in September 2024, the duo was replaced by regular franchise composers Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard.