- Ballerina‘s closing scene is a deliberate homage to John Wick: Chapter 2‘s ending, its director says
- Len Wiseman reveals it was Keanu Reeves’ concept to create a near-identical ending
- Wiseman already has concepts for a follow-up movie
Ballerina‘s director has revealed it was Keanu Reeves’ concept to finish the action-thriller in the identical approach because the second John Wick film.
Speaking forward of the movie’s international launch on June 6, Len Wiseman instructed TechRadar that Reeves, who performs the franchise’s titular hitman, recommended that Ballerina‘s closing scene ought to mirror that of 2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2.
Full spoilers instantly observe for From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, so flip again if you have not watched it but.
Ballerina ends with Ana de Armas’ Eve Macarro watching her shut pal, who was additionally a Ruska Roma assassin-in-training earlier than she was kicked out by The Director, obtain her dream of changing into a fully-fledged ballet dancer.
However, as Macarro watches her efficiency at an area theater, the footage is interspersed with somebody placing out a contract hit on the titular character. Numerous telephones – owned by different hitmen, no much less – begin pinging and buzzing within the theater, which Macarro rapidly turns into conscious of. Knowing she’s in peril if she sticks round, she quietly leaves through one of many venue’s fireplace exits.
The ending is not dissimilar to John Wick: Chapter 2‘s closing scene. That film, which takes place years previous to Ballerina (discover out extra about this franchise’s timeline in my John Wick motion pictures so as information), closes with the eponymous hitman being pressured to go on the run.
That’s as a result of Wick executed a fellow murderer on the grounds of the New York department of The Continental, a series of hitman safehouses, which is a giant no-no. Subsequently, a bounty is reluctantly positioned on Wick’s head by Winston Scott, The Continental New York supervisor and Wick’s ally. As Wick flees the scene, the telephones of assassins in his neighborhood begin ringing to inform them of the reward for whoever efficiently takes down Wick.
“When Keanu and I had been wrapping up [his on-screen involvement] in Ballerina, we talked about how this film would finish,” Wiseman instructed me, “And that ending was all Keanu’s concept. He needed that final second to be a riff on the second movie’s closing second, which speaks to the ‘actions and penalties’ theme that runs by way of these motion pictures.”
As apparent as it’s to say, the open-ended nature of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina‘s closing scene teases the chance that Macarro’s journey will proceed in Lionsgate’s multi-billion-dollar enterprise. So, does Wiseman have any ideas on the place this de Armas-led movie collection might go subsequent within the Wick-Verse?
“In a fantasy type of approach, yeah, I’ve my concepts [of where a follow-up could go],” Wiseman replied after I requested about potential sequel plans. “But, I’d like to listen to what folks reply to on this film first. I hope there’s hypothesis from followers about who they suppose is coming after Eve, too, as a result of we do not truly know who that’s.”
Wiseman is not the one solid and crew member who needs one in every of 2025’s new motion pictures to arrange a future installment in The World of Wick.
In a separate chat, Norman Reedus, who performs the criminally underused Daniel (learn extra about why I believe that is the case in my Ballerina evaluate), mentioned he believes there’s a lot extra to discover together with his character. Indeed, the one issues we actually learn about Daniel are that he’s the son of Gabriel Byrne’s now-deceased cult chief often known as the Chancellor, has a daughter, and survived Ballerina‘s occasions due to Macarro.
“I’d like to do all of these issues,” Reedus mentioned after I requested if he’d wish to have his personal spin-off movie, seem in Ballerina 2, and/or present up in John Wick Chapter 5. “Let’s put that on the market into the universe. I imply, it is a no-brainer and, if this movie does properly, who is aware of what the long run holds?”
