Ana De Armas Reveals Her Requirement For John Wick Spin-Off
It makes sense to us.
Ana de Armas is making quite the career out of starring in movies with spies and assassins. She’s already appeared alongside one of the most famous spies of all time in No Time to Die and the upcoming The Gray Man should be another great showcase of her talents. But she’ll finally get to take the lead in her own assassin thriller with Ballerina. However, before De Armas agreed to take on the role, she wanted to make sure one key requirement was in place — that a female writer was on board to pen the screenplay.
In an interview with ELLE, Ana de Armas talked about the process of finding the perfect writer for Ballerina, saying “It was really important for me to hire a female writer, because to that point when I got involved in the project, it was only the director, Len Wiseman, and another guy. And I was like, ‘That’s not going to work.’ So I interviewed, like, five or six female writers.” The interview process led to De Armas landing on Emerald Fennel for the project. This seems like a great choice, as Fennel is best known for the acclaimed thriller Promising Young Woman.
Ballerina is a movie set in the John Wick universe of films, so you know you can expect high-octane action and more intriguing lore about the network of assassins that operate in the John Wick universe. Ballerina looks like it will be telling a story mostly separated from Wick’s, as it follows a young female assassin seeking revenge against the people who killed her family. The group led by Anjelica Huston’s character in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum provided the inspiration for the spin-off, further strengthening the connection to that universe. At this time, Ana de Armas is the only cast member that has been announced for the project.
In addition to shaking things up on the writer side for Ballerina, there will also be a director shakeup. While John Wick director Chad Stahelski is stepping aside for Ballerina, he’ll be staying on as executive producer to make sure the story elements line up with the rest of the John Wick-established canon. Len Wiseman will be stepping up in the director role. While there isn’t a release date for Ana de Armas’ Ballerina yet, we will be getting the next chapter of John Wick with John Wick: Chapter 4, which should keep action fans plenty sated until Ballerina. Stahelski will be returning for the fourth John Wick and of course, Keanu Reeves will be back in the titular role. John Wick: Chapter 4 will also feature Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Scott Adkins, Ian McShane, Marko Zaror, Natalia Tena, and Clancy Brown.
While we wait for the next entries to the John Wick franchise, you can catch Ana de Armas in a different kind of assassin movie with The Gray Man hitting Netflix on July 22. The Gray Man stars Ryan Gosling as the CIA’s top operative on the run after a former colleague (Chris Evans) puts a bounty on his head. Ana de Armas will also be appearing as Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming movie Blonde, which is set to release on September 23.
