(Updated 03/20/2025)
The JOHN WICK movie series had humble beginnings, with a relatively low-budget first movie that struggled for a wide release. But it quickly earned a huge fandom. Three more movies and a TV series have followed, with each new JOHN WICK movie being bigger than the last. Now, as producers and star Keanu Reeves weigh the option for another installment, a spin-off movie is coming to theaters.
Ana de Armas stars as the title character in BALLERINA. The action thriller is produced by the main JOHN WICK team and is cut very much from the same cloth. The John Wick character even appears — and it seems like he's showing up as the fearsome enforcer that we've heard about in the other movies.
Here's the new trailer for BALLERINA, and everything you need to know about the new movie.
Ballerina Pulls Us Back Into John Wick's World in June
Lionsgate will release BALLERINA in movie theaters on June 6, 2025.
Watch the New Ballerina Trailer
There's a lot in this trailer, but the big takeaway for most viewers is probably going to be the role John Wick plays in the story. He does not seem to be a helpful presence! This is Wick as the Baba Yaga, a violent demon you do not ever want to meet. Frankly, we haven't seen a lot of this version of the character in his own movies, so among all the other aspects of BALLERINA that look great, we're excited to see how that aspect plays out.
For more information, there's this good "making of" clip, which shows off a lot of behind-the-scenes footage. "This is not a female John Wick," says director Len Wiseman. This video focuses on introducing the character played by Ana de Armas, and showing how much work went into the creation of the movie.
What's the Plot of Ballerina?
The trailer gets into a lot of detail, but the core seems to be that the Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a Russian ballerina-turned-assassin trained in the ways of the Ruska Roma, seeks vengeance against the men who killed her family. But that puts her at odds with the powers that be in the Underworld.
Additionally, last year, Writer Shay Hatten said,
"Ballerina starts by introducing a character who kind of went through some of the same training as John in the ballet academy of Anjelica Huston['s character] that we see in the third movie. But then she ends up going to a whole new corner of the world and a new kind of isolated community that really is unlike anything we've seen in these previous John Wick movies."
When Does Ballerina Take Place?
BALLERINA is set between the events of JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 — PARABELLUM and JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4.
The main character is actually seen briefly in PARABELLUM. As John Wick enters the domain of Anjelica Huston's character, she's dancing solo on stage. In that appearance, the character was played by real-life ballerina Unity Phelan.
As to how the story in BALLERINA fits between those two JOHN WICK movies, read on…
Is John Wick in Ballerina?
Yes! As the trailer shows, Keanu Reeves filmed scenes for BALLERINA. We do not know how much of the film he will appear in, but writer Shay Hatten has said "He's a real character, and it's not just kind of a one-piece cameo."
We had expected to see Wick acting as a mentor or trainer for Eve to some extent — and despite his antagonistic appearance in the trailer, that may be what happens. PARABELLUM ends with Wick badly injured and set to hide out with the Bowery King for a while. Then he's in good shape by the beginning of CHAPTER 4. So what happened in the interim? Expect BALLERINA to fill in some of the story gaps.
Who's in the Ballerina Cast?
Ana de Armas stars as Eve, "a ballerina who seeks revenge by hunting the murderers of her family." She and Reeves have worked together before, in KNOCK, KNOCK, which likely helped de Armas get this role.
In addition to Keanu Reeves, several JOHN WICK characters appear. Anjelica Huston reprises her role as the head of the Ruska Roma; Ian McShane shows up as Winston Scott; and the late Lance Reddick had filmed scenes before his untimely death. BALLERINA will be his vinal big-screen appearance.
Additionally, Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus are in the cast — likely alongside many other actors who have yet to be named.
Who Made Ballerina?
BALLERINA was written as an action/thriller unrelated to the JOHN WICK series, then refashioned into a spin-off. (This is not unheard of!) Shay Hatten wrote the original script. Ana de Armas brought Emerald Fennell (SALTBURN) in to rewrite, and then Hatten did some additional work on top of that draft.
Len Wiseman (UNDERWORLD, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD) directs. Notably, while JOHN WICK director Chad Stahelski is not directing this movie (he did produce), Stahelski worked as a stunt coordinator on some of Wiseman's movies. So the two have a history and working relationship. Furthermore, after this movie was delayed from 2024 to 2025, news of the release date change came with a report that Stahelski is directly overseeing additional action filming for the movie. So this might feel even more like a JOHN WICK movie than we expected it to.
BALLERINA opens on June 6.
All images courtesy of Apple and Lionsgate.