John Wick Producer Reveals Ballerina Wasn't Initially Planned as Franchise Spinoff

Longtime John Wick fans are looking forward to how the franchise is set to expand with the upcoming spinoff Ballerina, and while there's lots of promise in that project, producer Erica Lee recently recalled how the origins of the story were entirely disconnected from anything having to do with Wick. While some audiences might be disappointed by these details, some will see it as being a compelling enough film in its own right to be developed, which was then heightened by incorporating signature elements from the John Wick series. Ballerina doesn't currently have a release date though it is expected in 2024.

"It's funny, Ballerina was sort of a long time coming, also. [Writer] Shay Hatten was like an intern for Robert Downey Jr., I had a general meeting with him, he was a huge John Wick fan, and he wrote Ballerina in a vacuum, like as a spec script," Lee recalled to Collider. "He gave it to me, I want to say five years ago, and I read it and was like, 'Okay.' It was an assassin, Rooney, it was a female character, but we optioned it and we're like, 'Let's back this into [the] John Wick universe.'"

She continued, "Then we started developing and making it more Wick. But this was before we'd even shot John Wick 3. [There have] been iterations along the way, and as we keep learning more about the universe and creating new characters and refining the Wick world, that enters its way into Ballerina. So, even a year ago, when we were working on the script, it was like, 'Okay, Winston was sort of there, and the Charon character, and Anjelica Huston, The Director's character,' but it was like, 'What do we know now? What is the state of The Continental? What is the timeline? How are we breaking it? What are the reference points we can use?' Ballerina is this constantly evolving ecosystem of a movie. It's just been really fun to work on."

Ballerina isn't the only expansion of the franchise on the horizon, as the TV series The Continental is also in the works, which will chronicle the inner workings of the iconic hotel in which assassins orchestrate their deadly business. Currently, a fifth John Wick film has yet to be confirmed.

Are you looking forward to Ballerina? Let us know in the comments!