Anjelica Huston Reveals How Her John Wick Character Fits Into Ballerina (and What She Wants From Chapter 5)

Anjelica Huston offers a glimpse at the role of her shadowy anti-heroine, the Director, in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina ahead of the movie’s upcoming release. Speaking to ComicBook, Huston described the Director’s connection to the movie’s protagonist Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), stating, “I see her as essentially a mother to Eve. She defends what she believes to be important and honest, and she’ll stand in the way of anything that threatens that.” Additionally, Huston also expressed her enthusiasm to return as the Director in the officially greenlit John Wick: Chapter 5, saying, “I’d like to do more physical stuff. I would love to see what she’s actually capable of because you know, you know it’s something that somebody does not live in that world for very long without knowing how to throw down”.

Huston’s comments indicate a fair amount about what audiences can expect from the Director’s role in Ballerina and potentially in John Wick: Chapter 5, though Huston’s description of a maternal relationship between the Director and Eve is interesting considering what has been teased in Ballerina‘s marketing. Like Keanu Reeves’ John Wick, Ana de Armas’ Eve is raised and trained under the Ruska Roma family, becoming highly adept in martial arts, gunplay, and assassination. With Eve specifically training under the Director as part of the Ruska Roma’s clandestine ballerina training sect, it makes sense that the Director has a connection with Eve akin to an adoptive mother.

That said, the Director and Eve’s relationship also seems to be a rather fractured one in Ballerina‘s story, with Eve seeking revenge for the killing of her father, and the Director trying to put a stop to her vendetta. As seen in the trailers, this eventually involves calling on John Wick to kill Eve or convince her to drop her mission.

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As seen in the third and fourth John Wick movies (Ballerina taking place between the two movies), the Baba Yaga has had a contentious relationship with the Director and the Ruska Roma. Though he manages to get back in the good graces of both in the two movies, it doesn’t come without a lot of pain on John’s part. Eve’s revenge mission in Ballerina could similarly put her odds with the Director and the Ruska Roma, which could force her into making some tough but necessary choices to make amends with her adoptive mother, John Wick, and the larger Ruska Roma family.

The Director’s role in the John Wick universe

Huston’s desire to take part in the action of John Wick: Chapter 5 would also make for a compelling twist in the franchise, with the Director having largely been shown as a high-ranking member of the Ruska Roma without being on the frontlines in the same way as John Wick and Eve. Huston’s observation that fighting skills are a must in the John Wick universe certainly goes without saying in the action-packed franchise. With series director Chad Stahelski teasing a mission for the Baba Yaga that is unrelated to the High Table in John Wick: Chapter 5, the Director could potentially be one of his allies in his conflict, and give audiences a chance to see the Director’s skills with guns, knives, and swords.

Considering Ballerina‘s place in the John Wick franchise’s timeline between the third and fourth movies, the Director’s maternal but seemingly volatile relationship with Eve could even motivate the Director to finally jump into action. With Eve as a kind of wayward adoptive daughter and the Director as her surrogate mother, the latter might see direct involvement in both protecting and disciplining her as the most logical course of action. Then again, with Eve’s kill count already rivaling John Wick’s, her less-than-harmonious relationship with the Director might even become a key aspect of both Eve and the Director’s future roles in the John Wick franchise.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina will be released in theaters on June 6.