(Updated 01/28/2025)
The JOHN WICK movie series had humble beginnings, with a relatively low-budget first movie that struggled for a wide release, and then quickly earned a huge fandom. Three 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 in the works.
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, with some specific tweaks to suit this particular story. Here's a new long look at the movie, and everything you need to know.
What's the Ballerina Release Date?
Lionsgate will release BALLERINA in movie theaters on June 6, 2025.
Watch a Long Look at the Making of Ballerina
"This is not a female John Wick," says director Len Wiseman. There is a trailer for BALLERINA, and it is good, but we really like this combo behind the scenes and trailer edit from the Brazilian Comic Con in December 2024.
This video focuses on introducing the character played by Ana de Armas, and showing how much work went into the creation of the movie. But it also reminds us that this movie is closely related to the JOHN WICK movies by featuring a number of actors familiar from that series — not least of whom is Keanu Reeves. And it's really nice to see the late Lance Reddick one more time. He makes his final screen appearance in BALLERINA.
As a supplement, you can also watch the scene from the third JOHN WICK movie, which helps set up this film.
What's the Plot of Ballerina?
Right now, the only official word is a brief synopsis, which doesn't tell us too much! "The world of John Wick expands with BALLERINA, as Ana de Armas stars as an assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma.
But various people involved with the movie have talked about it over the last few months. 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."
So that tells us something!
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, Rooney, is actually seen briefly in PARABELLUM. As John Wick enters the domain of Anjelica Huston's character, Rooney is dancing solo on stage. She's 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 expect to see Wick acting as a mentor or trainer for Rooney to some extent. 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. As mentioned above, we see all of them in the trailer.
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.