Ana de Armas entered the world of John Wick not with a bang, but a whimper at the box office. Let’s look at why that is, what could have been, and where the John Wick franchise goes from here.

I dug “Ballerina.”

Then again, I’m a sucker for waif assassin movies, a love I developed from Luc Besson’s Nikita.

(Let the record show, as I later discovered to my eternal delight, women like Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, and several other Asian actresses were doing the ass-kicking heroine thing in the eighties. Sexy ass Pam Grier was doing it back in the seventies.)

Origins of the Ballerina

The script for Ballerina didn’t start as a John Wick story. Inspired by the trailer for John Wick 2, writer Shay Hatten had written a script about an assassin ballerina,

Hatten went on to write John Wick 3: Parabellum (and that long ass John Wick 4). He incorporated elements of his Ballerina script into the movie, most notably the Ruska Roma.

The ballerina who keeps falling on stage in Parabellum is the character de Armas would go on to play. The scene is recreated in her movie.

Hatten then retooled his ballerina script into the movie that became de Armas’s film.

Side note: Hatten also wrote the dumpster fire movies Rebel Moon for Zack Snyder, so if you have issues with the story of Ballerina, you should have kept your expectations low.

Ana de Armas nailed it as the ballerina

However, I’ll give Hatten this much. He added to the world of John Wick, introducing us to another intriguing faction within the world of assassins.

Hatten also gave us some memorable characters, particularly Gabriel “always good to see him” Byrne as the cult leader Chancellor.

There’s even a strong motivation for the ballerina character, Eve Macarro.

Ana de Armas nails not only the psychological needs of the part as Eve struggles between her desire for revenge and her duty to the Ruska Roma’s world of assassins under the High Table.

De Armas is equally as good in the action department. But we knew she would be from her work in No Time to Die.

I mean, her sequence with Daniel Craig’s James Bond was a much-needed relief from the pseudo-seriousness of Bond’s last (?) outing.

And de Armas looked damned good doing it both there and in Ballerina.

In fact, imma post another picture of her just because.

The Ballerina’s burden – John Wick

From the get, Ballerina was saddled with the burden of being a part of the John Wick universe.

But rather than let the movie breathe on its own, like a Star Wars story without a Skywalker, the filmmakers and studio, Lionsgate, shoehorned the man himself into the movie.

Yes, Keanu Reeves returns as the universe’s namesake, John Wick.

Origins of a franchise name

The original franchise name was “Scorn.” However, in interviews, Reeves kept referring to the movie by his character’s name. Seizing on the marketing potential, the franchise became “John Wick.”

But he really didn’t need to be there. I have two reasons why his presence pisses me off.

I get that the filmmakers are stealing a page from the Saw franchise and weaving their story into one of the other films. Fine.

Seeing Wick in the background, even having the brief initial exchange between Wick and Eve, is cool. Sets up the character’s motivation and cements Wick as the legend that he is, something for Eve to aspire to before she learns she can have her revenge.

But after that, I don’t need Wick.

Let Eve have her own story out from under Wick’s shadow. Otherwise, the audience gravitates toward “when is Wick gonna save the day?” and pushes Eve and her story to the back burner.

Keanu Reeves with a lightsaber? Whaaaaat?

The other gripe I have is that Reeves was supposed to play Jedi Master Sol in the Disney+ show, The Acolyte. Now, Squid Game alumnus Lee Jung-Jae did an excellent job in the role.

But we could have had Keanu Reeves in one of the better Star Wars shows, and filming Ballerina screwed that up!

Had they held Wick to a cameo, we could have had Keanu Reeves wielding a lightsaber, fam!

Black Widow syndrome

Did we mention Ballerina had wrapped filming in 2023?

Lance Riddick is in Ballerina as Charon, and he passed away two years ago!

Maybe if it had come out before John Wick 4 and closer to de Armas kicking ass in 2021’s No Time to Die, Ballerina would have had momentum.

It was possible. Die was in the can before COVID, so she was free. John Wick 3: Parabellum dropped in 2019.

Giving up 2020 to COVID, they could have gotten Ballerina up, running, and done before Wick 4‘s release in 2023. But, reasons.

After the events of John Wick 4, it has serious Black Widow vibes, and that’s not a good thing.

Ballerina movie off to a whimper of a start

All this resulted in Ballerina underperforming at the box office, barely hitting its $90 million budget.

Sad, because the movie ends with a perfect setup for sequels that could stretch the Wickverse (they’re really calling it that?) beyond John Wick.

This, despite the barely plausible conceit that it seems like one out of every three people in that universe are assassins, and that despite their high numbers, not a whisper of law enforcement is on to them.

Really?

Really?

The OG John Wick worked because it had a crack bunch of filmmakers and a studio that believed in the project.

Shoving Wick into Ballerina and saddling the title with From the World of John Wick, though true, doesn’t inspire confidence in your film being part of the world and yet standing alone.

Then again, it’s a fair argument that an action movie called Ballerina wouldn’t appeal to anyone outside of the John Wick fanbase. But isn’t that why Lionsgate has a team of marketing geniuses to come up with that alternate title?

Instead, they opted for From the World of John Wick. Lame.

The future of the John Wick franchise

If you can’t make a movie without Wick in it, then your universe doesn’t hold up.

(We should also mention the Wick-less television show The Continental, which was so bad Wick director Chad Stahelski shit all over it in a recent interview.)

Lionsgate has at least two more Wick movies in the pipeline.

The first is an animated adventure, so Reeves’s knees can catch a break. Stahelski admits to the influence of anime on the series, so this tracks.

Meanwhile, the series is set for another spin-off with Donnie Yen’s character, blind assassin Caine. This should be a Wick-less story due to the events of 4.

Still, we’ll see if the filmmakers have more faith in director Yen than they did in Ballerina director Len Wiseman (Stahelski stepped in for last-minute reshoots in February 2024 for Ballerina).

As much as I love John Wick, Keanu Reeves, and Ana de Armas, Lionsgate may wanna rethink future Wick sequels. (But someone get de Armas into an original action franchise stat!)

Let the character — and the franchise — rest in peace.