How John Wick Director Chad Stahelski Really Felt About Keanu Reeves' Ballerina Appearance

Len Wiseman's 2025 actioner "Ballerina," which was marketed as "From the World of John Wick: Ballerina," stars Ana de Armas as Eve Maccro, a super-capable assassin raised in a bizarre and ultra-violent assassins school. Because "Ballerina" takes place in the same continuity as the "John Wick" movies, its mythology is achingly complex and semi-incomprehensible. The "John Wick" films are set in a world where seemingly a quarter of the Earth's population belongs to one assassin's guild or another, all of which are constantly at war. It also operates by a byzantine system of chits, favors, and blood libels, with entire industries having sprung up to provide assassins with clothing, weapons, education, and lodgings.

The four "John Wick" movies that preceded "Ballerina" — all of them directed by stunt performer Chad Stahelski — laid out the franchise's assassin lore in excruciating detail, while also providing audiences with some of the most spectacular action filmmaking in many years. "Ballerina" itself is a spin-off film about the Ruska Roma, a Russian crime syndicate that uses a ballet school as its front. Eve Maccro is a young woman raised in the Ruska Roma, having learned to fight and murder with efficiency partly through the practice of ballet. Early in the film, Eve sees John Wick himself (Keanu Reeves) pass through the school, and they share a brief interaction. This scene overlaps with some of the events of "John Wick: Chapter 2."

That would have been enough to establish that, yes, John Wick was part of this world, but the "Ballerina" creatives took it several steps further near the end of the film. Indeed, the movie's climax has John showing up and engaging in a shootout with Eve, as well as a whole snowy village of Bad Guys. As a result, John ends up playing a major role in the film's third act.

Speaking in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stahelski was frank about John Wick's inclusion in "Ballerina." The character, Stahelski admitted, wasn't a huge part of the film's early script drafts. Rather, his role was eventually expanded to firm up the movie's connection to the larger "John Wick" property.

Stahelski also admitted that he didn't love the idea of including John Wick in "Ballerina." It's worth remembering that John Wick dies — rather poetically — at the end of 2023's "John Wick: Chapter 4." Ever since then, the property's creative overseers have strained to find ways to keep the "John Wick" franchise going sans its title character. "Ballerina" came after the release of "The Continental" (a largely-derided prequel TV show that debuted in 2023) and was supposed to be about a minor player from "John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum" (one originally played by Unity Phelan) going on her own adventures. John Wick himself, however, wasn't supposed to be a major part of it.

Ultimately, though, Stahelski reluctantly agreed to bring John into the mix, recognizing that "Ballerina" needed, essentially, a leg up. The franchise had to stay big, so including Reeves was a good way to do that. As Stahelski put it:

"That wasn't in the original script. To be honest, I was kind of against it. But I do see the benefit, and we wanted to help out [Len Wiseman]. We had just opened 'John Wick 4,' and it was huge. He couldn't go back to the model of the first 'John Wick' and do a little $18 million indie thing, and try to build it up. In order to stay in the same game, you got to give him a fighting chance. And the easiest way to transfer that over — at least, from the studio point of view — was have Wick in 'Ballerina' in a special timeline."

The "special timeline" comment was meant to cover up any inconsistencies between "Ballerina" and the extant "John Wick" movies, which don't necessarily synch up perfectly. It's easier to say that this is a freewheeling tale with the same characters, mythology, and physics as "John Wick," but it doesn't directly overlap. One could even call it semi-canonical, if one wanted a definition.

Of course, now that John Wick has appeared in "Ballerina," what does that mean for the other planned "John Wick" spin-offs? As of this writing, Lionsgate is mapping out a spin-off movie about Caine, the blind assassin played by Donnie Yen in "John Wick: Chapter 4" (with Yen and Rina Sawayama set to reprise their roles from "Chapter 4" in the film). Stahelski went on record to say that John Wick will definitely not be part of this particular project, explaining:

"The Donny Yen spin-off doesn't have the John Wick character. It's got Donny Yen and it's an ode to kung fu movies. If 'John Wick 1' was about Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin, this is about Chow Yun-fat, John Woo, and Wong Kar-wai. So, I think that one is a little easier to get it across to audiences because it's in a sub-genre of what we love." 

In case you needed a refresher, Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin both famously played violent, vengeance-driven characters in the films "Death Wish" and "Point Blank," respectively. Similarly, actor Chow Yun-fat and director John Woo made several highly celebrated action movies together in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As for Won Kar-wai, he's one of the most praised film directors currently working, being best known for his gorgeous photography and tales of romantic longing like "In the Mood for Love." It seems that all concerned parties are fans of those filmmakers and aim to make something in their style.

Other planned "John Wick" projects include an animated prequel film and (somehow) "John Wick: Chapter 5," which will apparently circumvent John's death in the fourth mainline movie. Maybe he died, but he got better. Then again, if "special timelines" are allowed, then perhaps anything goes.