John Wick's Director Knows Exactly What Went Wrong With The Continental TV Series

Lionsgate is rapidly expanding the "John Wick" universe. "Ballerina," aka "Ballerina: From the World of John Wick," is in theaters now and serves as the first theatrical spin-off in the very successful action movie franchise. It's not the first spin-off overall, though. That distinction goes to "The Continental," a prequel TV series the producers once called a "genius idea." It turned out to be a big swing and a miss, sort of existing as the oft-ignored stepchild of the universe at present. 

The series takes place in the 1970s and centers on a young Winston Scott (Colin Woodell), the character played by Ian McShane in the films, and shows us how he came to control The Continental hotel in New York City, a famous safe haven for assassins. On paper, it doesn't sound like a bad story to tell. The execution, however, left much to be desired. /Film's Jeremy Mathai called "The Continental" a "lifeless, joyless, and ultimately pointless" spin-off in his review.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in honor of the release of "Ballerina," franchise shepherd Chad Stahelski, who directed all four main "John Wick" movies, spoke candidly about what happened with "The Continental." So, what went wrong? Here's what he had to say about it:

"Keanu and I were — I wouldn't say sidelined, but our opinion was heard and not really noted. [The studio] tried to convince me they knew what they were doing. A group of individuals thought they had the magic sauce. But if you take out Basil Iwanyk's producing intuitiveness, if you take out Keanu's way of delivering quirky dialogue and if you take out all the visuals I have in my head from Wong Kar-wai, anime, Leone, Bernardo [Bertolucci] or Andrei Tchaikovsky ... then it's not the same thing. They thought this was as easy as using anamorphic lenses, do a kooky hotel, put in weird dialogue, and insert crime drama."

As Stahelski sees it, the team that's been at the core of these movies is what makes "John Wick" tick. That's not to say that Reeves needs to be in every single project and it's not to say that Stahelski necessarily needs to direct every single project. But the studio would at least do well to listen to them, given that they're the ones that saved "John Wick" from being a direct-to-video release and turned it into a massive franchise.

The signs were there when it came to "The Continental," which first entered development at Starz in 2018. The five-year waiting period and changing networks certainly didn't inspire confidence. It turns out, there were plenty of reasons not to be confident. Speaking further, Stahelski offered a larger window into their creative process, which differed greatly from what was done with the ill-fated spin-off series:

"If you saw our process, you'd be like, 'You're telling me this billion dollar franchise does it this way?' I'm scouting my next film in London and we saw a cool location yesterday which totally changed the second act. We rewrote the whole thing. I find great cast members and rewrite their parts constantly. That's what makes [the movies] so good and organic — we're constantly upgrading. But the studio likes to know what they're getting for their buck and want to lock a script for budget reasons. While we're saying, 'Just write the check, we'll see you at the finish line.'"

Stahelski is asking for a lot, but many would say he's earned it. Heck, he even came in to handle reshoots on "Ballerina" when Len Wiseman couldn't be there. And in the early going, at least, audiences are responding well to the film, which looks and feels much more like something from the "John Wick" universe than "The Continental." Lionsgate is unlikely to make the same mistakes again going forward, that much is certain.

"Ballerina" is in theaters now.