*Spoilers for “John Wick” from this point on!*
Those who know me, know that the John Wick movie franchise are my favorite action movies of all time. Keanu Reeves was not only one of my first celebrity crushes in my young, impressionable years, but that crush has endured to this day. It’s also the kind of action movie that is exactly what you want — car chases, gun fights, knife fights, fights in EDM clubs, and no stupid, superficial romance just for the sake of it. In all honesty, I love the movies so much because the entire series stems from a completely valid crash-out that just continually tumbles out of control. What was the crash-out caused by? Well, someone killed John Wick’s dog. And frankly, if someone killed my dog…let’s just say, I would suddenly become really into John Wick cosplay.
John Wick himself was originally part of a Russian crime family, and in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, when he is forced to grovel at their feet for resources, he approaches The Director in a theater while a ballerina is performing. As he walks down the aisle, viewers watch her collapse after doing a series of complicated twirls. This is where we see her back, which is covered in similar tattoos as John Wick himself, signifying her belonging to the family, and her loyalty and allegiance to them. The Director shouts, “Again!” and she gets back up and tries again, and this time we see bruises on her legs. While John Wick is begging The Director to acknowledge his heritage, which grants him allowance by birthright to the family’s resources, the ballerina continues to dance in the background. Once The Director allows her to stop, she immediately collapses on the stage from exhaustion.
Why am I bringing up this seemingly insignificant scene within the franchise? Well, because they’re making a movie about one of the ballerinas from the family, and it’s coming out this year!
But, why this abuse of the ballerinas? The way that I understand it, similarly in which the men were trained to serve and protect the family through training, the women are too, but through ballet. Anyone who has seen ballet, or who practices ballet themselves, know that it takes a different level of strength to look as graceful as they do while doing those complex performances. These women bend and twist their bodies to become strong, flexible, and serve the family.
In this new movie, Eve Macarro (played by Ana de Armas) is one of these ballerinas who is trained as an assassin. She wants to become a figure that is similar to John Wick, in that just her name alone, strikes fear. The Baba Yaga, or The Boogeyman, is John Wick’s nickname — his reputation sets the precedent for assassins everywhere. In the trailer, she asks him, “How do I start doing what you do?” and he replies with, “Looks like you already have.”
The director for Ballerina, Len Wiseman, said, “This is not a female John Wick. This is a story about Eve.” If we take that note, and then take the aforementioned response from John Wick to Eve’s question, we realize that this new movie will be a refreshing, new take on the John Wick world, but through a new perspective — a female assassin. And how exciting is that?
I am so ecstatic for this movie to come out, as it seems like it’s going to be such an enlivening take on this franchise that we’re already familiar with. The concept of ballerina assassins is not new, but combining that with John Wick-level-action and placing it within the existing storyline of the franchise means that it’s bound for success. As someone who loves movies, especially good action movies, I can’t wait for June 6, 2025. And as someone who loves women, especially badass women, I can’t wait for June 6, 2025.