The John Wick series—a hugely popular action crime franchise about a demimonde of assassins that started off with a movie about Keanu Reeve’s John Wick getting revenge for his dog getting killed—has now expanded beyond the lead films themselves into their own Wikckiverse and Catalina Sandino Moreno is the latest cast member to join the spinoff, Ballerina.
Deadline has announced that Moreno, who was nominated for an Oscar for the 2004 film, Maria Full of Grace, is the latest addition. Ballerina, lensed by director Len Wiseman of the Underworld franchise, will see a return of several classic Wick characters as well as another look into the world of the Ruska Roma syndicate of which Wick himself was a foundling of.
While Moreno’s role—the only hint given to fans is that it will be sizeable—is still under wraps, she’ll be joining a cast that includes Ian McShane reprising his role as Winston, the manager of the Continental Hotel (which was an assassin neutral zone), Lance Reddick’s Charon, and a recently announced Anjelica Huston returning as the head of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate and trainer of the titular ballerinas, female assassins that have a hardcore, Russian-inspired ballet-like training program reminiscent of the Black Widows from the Marvel universe.
The films, which have grossed over half a billion dollars to date, will see Moreno joining a crew that already has some familiarity with her. Says Erica Lee, who alongside Basil Iwanyk and series creator Chad Stahelski, serves as producer on the spinoff, “One of the challenges of casting Ballerina is making sure that the new roles are played by actors with as much power, emotional presence, and physical skill as Ana [de Armas] has. After working with Catalina on John Woo’s Silent Night, it was clear that she belonged at the top of our list, and it’s a thrill to be reuniting with her.” Moreno will be joining from recent roles in Epix’s From and HBO’s Room 104.
The series began with 2014’s John Wick, the movie that introduced audiences to the titular assassin and which centered on a man who thought he was done with killing getting pulled back into a world of limitless violence after his dog—a gift from his dying wife—was cruelly killed by those who were seeking vengeance for his past. 2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2 continued the trend, with Wick once more leaving retirement after a man he owed a blood debt to called in his chips, events which put him on the outs with the assassin world. The third chapter saw Wick declared excommunicado and on the run. Ballerina is the first spinoff of the franchise. A series about the Continental Hotel is also in the works.
Ballerina currently has no release date.
Source: Deadline