John Wick director was initially against Keanu Reeves appearing in Ballerina

Keanu Reeves’ appearance in Ballerina may not be a secret, but it was something John Wick director Chad Stahelski was initially opposed to.

“[Wick’s appearance] wasn’t in the original script,” Stahelski told THR. “To be honest, I was kind of against it. But I do see the benefit and we wanted to help out [director Len Wiseman]. We had just opened John Wick 4 and it was huge. He couldn’t go back to the model of the first John Wick and do a little $18 million indie thing and try to build it up. In order to stay in the same game, you got to give him a fighting chance. And the easiest way to transfer that over — at least, from the studio point of view — was have Wick in Ballerina in a special timeline.“

It sounds like Stahelski would have preferred if Ballerina stood alone, but understood that an appearance from Wick would help put butts in seats.

As for the next John Wick spinoff, which will focus on Donnie Yen’s character Caine, Stahelski made it clear that Wick won’t be making an appearance. “The Donnie Yen spinoff doesn’t have the John Wick character,” he said. “It’s got Donnie Yen and it’s an ode to kung fu movies. If John Wick 1 was about Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin, this is about Chow Yun-fat, John Woo and Wong Kar-wai. So I think that one is a little easier to get it across to audiences because it’s in a sub-genre of what we love.“

Our own Chris Bumbray thought Ballerina was a solid addition to the franchise. “Ballerina is one of the more satisfying franchise spin-offs in recent memory,” he wrote in his review. “In this era of IP, every studio is desperate to max out the potential sequels and spinoffs their key franchises can handle, and Lionsgate has a whole slew planned around the John Wick franchise. Yet, what makes Ballerina different is that this doesn’t feel like much of a derivative of the franchise, given that Keanu Reeves was coaxed back to reprise his role. While his contribution to the film is mainly limited to the last act, his involvement is far more than a cameo, with him having a legitimate supporting role, giving the movie a welcome sense of legitimacy.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.

Ballerina will officially hit theaters tomorrow.

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