John Wick Director Buries Spinoff Series The Continental: “Not the Same Thing” (& He’s Right)

John Wick co-creator Chad Stahelski just got candid about the franchise, saying that he doesn’t see The Continental: From the World of John Wick as a part of the same story. Stahelski and many other creative minds — including Keanu Reeves — were excluded from the production, he told The Hollywood Reporter, and he felt it was because they were mistakenly regarded as replaceable. Now, Stahelski has “franchise oversight” for all things Wick, and he believes that the end result is greater than the sum of its parts. The future of the franchise obviously not certain, but it wont’ be making the same mistakes as The Continental again.

“Keanu and I were — I wouldn’t say sidelined, but our opinion was heard and not really noted,” Stahelski said of the streaming series. “[The studio] tried to convince me they knew what they were doing. A group of individuals thought they had the magic sauce… They thought this was as easy as using anamorphic lenses, do a kooky hotel, put in weird dialogue, and insert crime drama.”

Stahelski gave some examples of what he thought The Continental was missing — Reeves’ one-of-a-kind performance, producer Basil Iwanyk’s intuition, and his own extensive martial arts choreography background. However, at the same time, he admitted that from the outside, he didn’t blame them for thinking they could do it without him. “If you saw our process, you’d be like, ‘You’re telling me this billion dollar franchise does it this way?’” he said.

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The Continental is a prequel to all the John Wick movies, set in the 1970s. It shows how a young Winston Scott (Colin Woodell) becomes the manager of The Continental hotel, where assassins like John Wick can find safety and re-arm themselves before heading back out. The show was developed by showrunners Greg Coolidge and Kirk Ward, as well as Shawn Simmons. It premiered in 2023 on Peacock, and it got mixed reviews from fans and critics. Viewership data for the series was never published, and there has been no substantive talk of continuing the story.

Now, the Wick franchise has plenty of other irons in the fire. Ballerina is in theaters now, while the documentary Wick is Pain was just recently released on to rent or purchase digitally on PVOD stores. Stahelski and his team are looking ahead to an animated prequel movie starring Reeves as Wick, and another spinoff about Donnie Yen’s character, the assassin Caine. Stahelski is also still working on a possible John Wick: Chapter 5, though he said that the story is still in development right now.