Ballerina Pirouettes from the World of John Wick into her own Franchise.

DIRECTED BY: LEN WISEMAN/2025

“From the world of John Wick” is clearly a way for audiences to immediately embrace this new spin-off of the titular series without having to lay a new foundation of world building, and its the smart play. Set between John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, is the new film From the World of John Wick: Ballerina starring Ana de Armas as the newest assassin to inhabit this world of the High Table, the Continental Hotel, and the Baba Yaga himself, John Wick.

After her father is gunned down by a cultish criminal organization he was once a part of and has tried to leave, Eve (Victoria Comte) is brought back to her father’s Russian family, the Ruska Roma organization (from previous John Wick films), run by The Director (Anjelica Huston). She is brought by the head of the Continental Hotel, Winston (Ian McShane), who gives her a token which promises his help should she ever need it in the future. As she grows up, we see how the Ruska Roma train their assassins in everything from dance (as literal ballerinas), close-combat fighting, gun and knives skills, and the ability to withstand a lot of pain. Eve, however, is eager to follow in her father’s footsteps of being an assassin, the path he left behind, so as to exact her revenge on the organization and the head of that cult who murdered her father.

All grown up, Eve (now played by Ana de Armas) longs to get her first assignments so as to get out in the world to enact her revenge. If not, she is ready to leave the Ruska Roma to do it herself. It is at this point that she encounters and speaks with John Wick (Keanu Reeves), who is brought in to speak to The Director at the time he was marked excommunicado from John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum. Once Eve gets that first assignment, the film kicks into high gear. It will eventually bring her back to the Continental where she will reunite with Winston which will set her in the path of Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus) and her ultimate goal of killing The Chancelor (Gabriel Byrne), with a few surprises thrown in related to her family’s history and a situation that mirrors her own. It is also the last on-screen appearance of Lance Reddick, the late-great actor who plays Winston’s right-hand man at the Continental, Charon.

Laying the foundation in the John Wick world, which already has the previous four films and the television show, The Continental, before it, Ballerina is able to effortlessly pirouette her way into the hard-core action that fans of this world have come to expect and love. Ana de Armas is more than up for the physicality of the role and deserves to showcase more of her character and her set of killing skills in future installments, as she is perfectly cast here.

For many years there have been calls to recast existing iconic characters such as James Bond, to make 007 female for example, in order to provide diversity in these type of roles, to showcase that females can kick ass too. But female actors have largely clamored for something different than recasting existing roles. Namely asking, how about writing strong, action-packed films led by female characters that are every bit as worthy of their own audience and iconic status, that characters like Bond have achieved, by creating something new? And we have been given several such characters in recent memory like Atomic Blonde (Charlize Theron), Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy…and Charlize Theron in Fury Road playing the same character), and now Ballerina (Ana de Armas).

Ballerina is a way for Hollywood to have its cake and eat it too. The creators don’t have to do the difficult job of world building for an entirely new character simply by placing her in an existing world that is very developed already. This allows them to create a story that allows the character to immediately draw in an audience and then let that audience decide if this character can stand on its own performance to create something new. Ballerina does that effortlessly. I found Ballerina to be almost as fun as the original John Wick. The stylized action flows well from set-piece to set-piece and with Ana de Armas, you feel confident to accompany her on her character’s journey.

Len Wiseman was a question mark in my mind coming in to this film. While effectively developing the character and story, and then directing for another badass female lead of Kate Beckinsale as Selene in both Underworld and Underworld: Evolution, Wiseman sort of became the go-to director of previously established franchises. These include Live Free or Die Hard, Total Recall (2012 remake), and now he is given another film in an existing world with Ballerina. Here, with Ballerina, he more than justifies himself as a reliable go-to director after those previously inconsistent attempts. He is able to put his own touches on this film while still rooting the feel of the pacing, action and stunts in the style of John Wick director (and former stuntman) Chad Stahelski, who produces on Ballerina. The flame-thrower vs. flame-thrower sequence is a fantastic highlight and example of this!

Ballerina should further establish Ana de Armas as a top-tier action and acting talent already having proved her value as a lead in Knives Out, Ghosted, Blade Runner 2049, Blonde, and as an assassin working alongside James Bond himself in the film No Time to Die. Having proven herself holding her own with the benchmark spy/assassin Bond, and now John Wick (she and Keanu have an impressive showdown in Ballerina), Ana de Armas is busting the false characterizations of strong female characters as assassins that continues to grip studios’ mindsets despite the success of these type of characters over the years from varied projects like La Femme Nikita, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2, Black Widow, Colombiana, Red Sparrow, Salt, and many more.

The John Wick franchise may finally be the film series that is just mainstream enough to eradicate what’s left of this erroneous notion and that will finally launch a female assassin into that same mainstream that their male assassin counterparts enjoy through its spin-off assassin, the Ballerina. May we see her dance her way to her own box-office success, bringing many more such female-led films with her. Ana de Armas makes the heavy lifting of this task look effortless and helps Ballerina saute across the screen in a film that is action-packed, engaging, and most importantly, a lot of fun. If the box office agrees, this Ballerina is just getting warmed up for future performances!