IGN can exclusively reveal four new photos from the upcoming John Wick universe movie Ballerina featuring cast members Ana de Armas, Ian McShane, Norman Reedus and Anjelica Huston.
Our exclusive comes ahead of the next Ballerina trailer dropping tomorrow, March 19, at 7am PT. The new trailer will be revealed as part of a livestream fan event across the film’s and Lionsgate’s social platforms.
In Ballerina, de Armas stars as Eve Macarro, an assassin training in the traditions of the Ruska Roma, one of the organizations that has a seat at the High Table. The Ruska Roma are led by Huston’s character, The Director, and operate out of the Tarkovsky Theater. The Director is also John Wick’s adoptive mother as was revealed in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
“Ballerina takes place in the John Wick world after the end of John Wick Chapter 3 and before the start of John Wick Chapter 4,” John Wick star Keanu Reeves, who cameos in Ballerina, explained in a statement to IGN. “It was so great to have the chance to play John Wick again and discover more of the John Wick world.”
Scroll through the gallery below for exclusive images from Ballerina.
In an e-mail interview with IGN, de Armas sang the praises of both Reeves and the John Wick franchise.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Keanu three times already, and Ballerina was particularly special because it was me stepping into his world. The world of John Wick, which is so loved by the fans. I respect and appreciate Keanu as an artist, as a person and as a friend, he’s a leader and force on set, and always a gentleman,” de Armas wrote.
“His creativity and input during the rehearsal is always so inspiring, he knows these films better than anyone and I loved having him by my side. When I saw him walking on set dressed as John, it was pretty surreal. I’ll never forget that day. Keanu has always been a huge influence on me, since the day we met. I never imagined I was going to work with him again; and here we are, living a really cool full circle moment.”
So who exactly is the Ballerina? “Eve Macarro was recruited and trained by the Ruska Roma to be a ballerina and assassin. She had a very traumatic experience as a child when she witnessed some men killing her father,” de Armas wrote. “The details about these men have been kept from her for years, but Eve cannot let it go, so she embarks on a journey to find them and take vengeance, violating pacts and rules that will bring very bad consequences for her.”
De Armas continued: “Eve has been trained to be the best among the best, by the same people that trained John Wick, but she’s a woman, smaller than most men in the film, so I wanted to find a way of building the fights embracing that quality, using it to my advantage. I wanted to be realistic with the efforts she makes to stay alive and the pain she’s feeling every step of the way. Because she’s a ballerina, she’s very good with close combat flights, she’s fast and always three steps ahead, using real life objects as weapons, turning simple things into something deadly, which is a quality that I love. This also allowed us a sort of freedom when creating fun and interesting fights, every set piece was our playground.”
Ballerina is the first movie in the John Wick franchise to not be directed by Chad Stahelski, with Len Wiseman (the Underworld series, Live Free or Die Hard) stepping behind the camera this time.
IGN recently asked Wiseman about the challenge of adopting the distinctive aesthetic of such a popular existing franchise while also attempting to put his own directorial stamp on it: “The tone and aesthetic of John Wick is largely what I love and respect about the franchise. So my approach with Ballerina was multi-layered; I wanted it to feel familiar and connected in ways that fans like myself would hope it to be, while bringing in many new and creative layers of my own as a filmmaker. It was a challenging balance, but one I was excited to tackle. I had fun with it.”
Ballerina hits theaters June 6th.
