“I was excited. I was nervous. I was worried,” Ana de Armas says about preparing to take on the lead role in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. The forthcoming John Wick spinoff stars de Armas as Eve Macarro, a ballerina who begins training as an assassin and sets out on a quest to avenge her father’s death. Set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, the film is set to feature Keanu Reeves’ Wick in a small role, but a new featurette for Ballerina understandably centers its attention on de Armas’ bloodthirsty Eve.
“When I got the opportunity or the offer, it was really inspiring,” de Armas reveals over footage of her character being told to “lean into [her] strength” during some intense rounds of martial arts training. While discussing the spinoff’s elaborate, John Wick-inspired action sequences, the actress said: “You have to be prepared for whatever they throw at you. It was a kind of discipline — physical and mental — that I didn’t know before.”
In the extended, 3-minute-long sneak peek, Ballerina director Len Wiseman also explains what separates the spinoff from its parent John Wick movies, which catch up with their eponymous protagonist when he is already a skilled master assassin. “This is not a female John Wick,” Wiseman noted. “This is a story about Eve coming into it from the beginning.”
In addition to de Armas and Reeves, Ballerina‘s cast includes franchise newcomers Gabriel Byrne and The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. Ian McShane is also set to reprise his John Wick role as Continental Hotel owner Winston Scott, and the late Lance Reddick returns as Continental concierge Charon in the upcoming spinoff as well.
The new Ballerina featurette includes a behind-the-scenes interview conducted with Reddick before he died last March. In it, he says of the film: “When I read the script, I didn’t think you could find a way to expand the world in a way that felt completely different and at the same time completely connected. But they did.” McShane, for his part, goes one step further, teasing: “John Wick is the Baba Yaga, and Ana, she’s the Baby Yaga.”
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is set to hit theaters on June 6, 2025.