LAS VEGAS – Keanu Reeves’ hard-luck hitman John Wick seemed to suffer a rather permanent fate that would likely keep him out of future franchise installments. But come on now, you can’t keep that guy down.
Last seen in 2023’s “John Wick: Chapter Four,” the beloved action-movie assassin will appear in the upcoming spinoff “John Wick Presents: Ballerina” (in theaters June 6, 2025) starring Ana de Armas. The explosive first trailer for “Ballerina” premiered Wednesday during a Lionsgate presentation at CinemaCon, the convention for movie theater owners and studios.
In it, de Armas’ character is touted as “the new face of vengeance” when seeking retribution for those who killed her family and wrecking dudes via her hands, legs and a flamethrower.
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The footage showcased familiar faces, including Wick allies Winston (Ian McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddick, in his final role). But the good stuff was at the very end, as the female assassin meets up with Wick at a train yard. “You’re him, the one they call Baba Yaga,” she says. “How do I start doing what you do?”
Wick’s reply: “Looks like you already have.”
Directed by Len Wiseman, “Ballerina” is set between the events of 2019’s “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” and “Chapter 4,” which means Wick is still on the run from the high table and not yet dead (at least seemingly) of a bullet wound.
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Reeves also appeared in the first footage from writer/director Aziz Ansari’s upcoming comedy “Good Fortune.” In it, the “John Wick” star plays an angel named Gabriel who tries to help a financially struggling guy (Ansari) find purpose by switching his life with that of a rich dude (Seth Rogen), and it backfires.
At CinemaCon, Ansari revealed that while the Wick movies never sent Reeves to the hospital, his new movie did: “Fifteen days into shooting with me, I was like, ‘Hey, just chill in your dressing room for 15 minutes’ and he tripped on a rug and went, ‘Oh, my knee!’ Poor guy. He was such a trouper.”
Ansari reported Reeves fractured his kneecap yet “still filmed everything except some scenes where he we needed him to do salsa dancing” that they need to pick up once he’s fully healed.
“He actually is an angel,” Ansari said of Reeves. “This is actually the first he’s gotten to play his true form. He has been pretending to be a human in all these other roles.”