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The future of Keanu Reeves’ John Wick character is somewhat in question. While the John Wick: Chapter 4 ending seemingly gave us a definitive conclusion for the character, there have been reports that John Wick: Chapter 5 is still a very real possibility. But John Wick as a franchise is still very much going forward, though there appear to be some problems there as well, which have resulted in the upcoming spinoff Ballerina getting pushed back by a full year.
Ian McShane (who will appear in the John Wick spinoff) recently appeared on the UK’s The One Show (via Twitter) where he explained the need to push the film off the 2024 release calendar. It seems, to put it bluntly, there’s a feeling that the movie just isn’t good enough in its current form. There’s a fear that if Ballerina doesn’t turn out well, it could damage the franchise, so they’re going back to try and make things better. McShane said…
It’s not reshoots, it’s new shoots. They’re shooting for Ballerina, which is the spinoff with Ana de Armas of the John Wick franchise. You know, it’s like they’ve got to protect the franchise. And obviously, I did it, when was it? We did it about a year ago, we did the movie Ballerina and they’ve looked at it, and Chad’s [Stahelski] come in, the guy who directed all the John Wick movies, and they want to make it better. Because they have to protect it. Because Keanu’s in it as well, and it takes place between John Wick 3 and John Wick 4.
McShane doesn’t say what it is about Ballerina that needs to be “better.” It could be an issue with the story or could be a problem with action sequences not living up to John Wick’s, admittedly high, standard, or some combination. There certainly wasn’t any previous indication that there was a problem with the movie.
Last fall director Len Wiseman said he was editing the film and called the movie “really fun.” He did say the movie was “on pause” following editing the film into his director’s cut. It’s possible the pause was due to the studio figuring out how to move forward.
Interestingly, when one of the hosts brings up The Continental limited series, McShane shuts down the conversation, not wanting to discuss it. McShane has previously been critical of the show, which is available with a Peacock subscription. The Continental wasn’t very well-received but had the benefit of not including Keanu Reeves or other actors from the film series. One wonders if the show’s lack of success played a part in Ballerina being given extra attention.
While it’s certainly not great news for Ballerina to see a year-long delay, most fans probably want the movie to be great too, so the fact that time and money are being spent to try and make that happen, rather than just releasing a “best possible” version of what has already been filmed, should be seen as a good thing.