John Wick is back — in some form.
Ana de Armas stars in Ballerina — a spinoff of the John Wick films that’s set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4 — as a ballerina-assassin who sets out to exact revenge for her father’s death. Keanu Reeves’ titular character also makes an appearance in the new film, as he told The Hollywood Reporter at its Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday, “I don’t know if it’s passing the torch but definitely part of expanding the story and the world of John Wick and getting another chance to explore new characters.”
Reeves also shouted out how de Armas is “really great at action but also just emotionally her talent, her range that she’s shown and [being] brave in her choices” when it comes to her work on screen. As for when he was most impressed with her, the star recalled, “when we would go from training to then when we would start — after they say action and you get into it — to see her go into that next level, where you really saw her joy for the action and filling action with her character.”
De Armas admitted that with months of training, “every day tested my limits, just endurance and the level of discipline and commitment and focus that you have to have to take on a movie like this is something that I had never done before, and especially for a long period of time.”
She and Reeves had previously worked together on 2015’s Knock Knock and 2016’s Exposed, and for their third collaboration “it was really special to get back on set, especially with this character John Wick. It was very iconic to just be on set the day he arrived and the whole crew went quiet.”
And with John Wick‘s fifth film on the horizon, de Armas hopes Ballerina will have a similar franchise arc, noting, “I love the character and I think we can go anywhere from where we left it. It’s really cool, I really like this character and the story and the universe and everything that Chad [Stahelski] and Keanu created with the John Wick films, and now to be a part of it, it’s really special.”
Ballerina hits theaters on Friday.
Tiffany Taylor contributed to this report.
