Ballerina (2025 film)

Ballerina (marketed as From the World of John Wick: Ballerina) is a 2025 American action thriller film directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten. It is a spin-off installment within the John Wick film series, taking place between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) and Chapter 4 (2023). It stars Ana de Armas as a ballerina and assassin Eve Macarro, who takes on an army of killers as she avenges the death of her father. The supporting cast includes Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick (in his final screen appearance), Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves.

Development on a fifth John Wick film began in 2017, after Hatten, who also contributed to the third and fourth films, wrote a spec script intended for a spin-off. Wiseman was appointed director in October 2019, with Chad Stahelski, the franchise's regular director, returning as a producer. Casting for Ballerina began in April 2022 and was rounded out by that December, with de Armas, Byrne and Reedus joining the cast and Huston, Reddick, McShane and Reeves returning. Composer and John Wick regular Tyler Bates also returned to score Ballerina. Principal photography began in November 2022 and lasted until January 2023, mainly in Prague and Budapest. Reshoots followed in February 2024.

Ballerina was theatrically released in the United States by Lionsgate on June 6, 2025, a year after it was originally scheduled to. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $137.2 million worldwide on a $90 million production budget.

Plot

Eve Macarro is the daughter of assassins Javier of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate and his Cultist wife. As a child, Eve was taken away from the Cult by Javier, which led to the death of her mother. To retrieve Eve, the Cult and its Chancellor raid their home; Javier dies as he helps Eve escape. New York Continental manager Winston Scott brings Eve to the Ruska Roma, an assassins society under the cover of performance dancers, where she meets their Director and agrees to enlist.

Over the next 12 years, Eve trains as a ballerina, assassin, and bodyguard. She briefly meets John Wick during his visit with the Director, and he hints at an escape from the cycle. However, Eve completes her training by killing a former Ruska Roma member and earns the title of "Kikimora". On her first mission, Eve successfully protects her first ward.

While on a mission two months later, Eve is attacked by and kills a Cultist, who bears the same mark as those that murdered her father. Seeking revenge, she asks the Director about the Cult but is forbidden from pursuing them due to a longstanding truce between the Cult and the Ruska Roma.

Eve disobeys the Director and visits the New York Continental to meet Winston. Winston reveals that this "Cult" is separate from most other organized crime syndicates, as they are more uncivilized and "kill not just for business, but for sport." Winston informs Eve that one Cultist, Daniel Pine, is staying at the Prague Continental with a large bounty on his life.

Eve travels there and infiltrates Pine's room; she discovers Pine is hiding his daughter Ella from the Cult. Cult member Lena increases the bounty on Pine, causing several assassins to descend upon Pine's hotel room. Pine entrusts Ella to Eve, promising to give her information on the Cult later. As they exit the hotel, Cultist Dex shoots Pine, while Lena incapacitates Eve and kidnaps Ella. The Continental staff execute two captured assassins for their attack but spare Eve after determining she did not break any Continental rules.

Eve attempts to purchase weapons from arms dealer Frank, but the Cult attacks his shop. After Eve kills the assailants, Frank helps her narrow down the location of the Cult's base in Hallstatt, Austria. As Eve enters the town, she quickly comes under attack by its inhabitants, all of whom are Cultists. Eve is eventually captured and brought to the Chancellor. He reveals the Cult is a refuge for former assassins and that Pine is his son and Ella his granddaughter. Eve breaks free before being cornered by Lena, who reveals she is her older sister. Lena says Javier abandoned her during his escape as he feared that the Cult had already indoctrinated her. The Chancellor then orders their deaths; Lena is killed, but Eve manages to escape.

The Chancellor calls the Director to declare war on the Ruska Roma. However, the Director explains that Eve went rogue and appeases the Chancellor by hiring John Wick to eliminate her. John arrives at Hallstatt, where he finds and quickly defeats Eve, but implores her to abandon her pursuit. Eve pleads for her revenge, prompting a sympathetic John to give her until midnight to kill the Chancellor. Eve resumes fighting the Cult while John assists her from a distance as a sniper, killing Dex and several other Cultists. The Chancellor attempts to flee with Ella, but Eve corners them. The Chancellor attempts to reason with Eve, but she kills him and rescues Ella. John informs the Director of the Chancellor's demise, which she accepts, and departs the area.

Ella is reunited with a recovering Pine at the Prague Continental. Eve seeks refuge at the New York Continental, having left the Ruska Roma, and is warned by Winston that the surviving members of the Cult will seek revenge against her. While attending a ballet performance by her friend Tatiana, Eve learns of a $5 million bounty on her head, and she leaves the theater.

Cast

• Ana de Armas as Eve Macarro, a ballerina who is beginning to train in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma. According to co-star Ian McShane, the character is under the protection of Winston and Charon in the New York Continental Hotel during the course of the film.
  • Victoria Comte as young Eve
• Anjelica Huston as the Director, the leader of the Ruska Roma, a New York-based organization of ballerina assassins
• Gabriel Byrne as the Chancellor, the leader of a dangerous cult of assassins based in Hallstatt
• Lance Reddick as Charon, the concierge at the Continental Hotel in New York and friend of Winston Scott and acquaintance of John Wick. This was Reddick's final appearance as Charon, and overall final on-screen appearance released posthumously two years following his death in March 2023.
• Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine, an assassin and the Chancellor's son who is escaping the Cult. Reedus admired Keanu Reeves for the film series' demanding "I-need-a-bottle-of-Advil-all-day-long type of job". Reedus contrasted the film's tightly choreographed fight scenes with the "loose" and "sloppy" ones in his television series The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
• Catalina Sandino Moreno as Lena, an assassin working for the Chancellor. She is Eve's long-lost older sister
• Anne Parillaud as Prague Concierge (cameo cut from the theater release)
• Ian McShane as Winston Scott, the enigmatic owner of the New York Continental Hotel and friend of John Wick
• Keanu Reeves as John Wick, a legendary assassin who is on the run from the High Table

Sharon Duncan-Brewster appears as Nogi, Eve's mentor. Choi Soo-young plays Katla Park, Eve's first field mission protectee, while Robert Maaser plays Dex, the Chancellor's right-hand man. Jung Doo-hong appears as Il Seong, who attempts to capture Katla. Waris Ahluwalia appears as The Eye, a cultist overseeing the town, while David Castañeda plays Javier Macarro, Eve and Lena's father who is affiliated with the Ruska Roma. Abraham Popoola stars as Frank, a high-end arms dealer based in Prague, while Ava McCarthy plays Ella Pine, the Chancellor's granddaughter and Pine's daughter. Juliet Doherty portrays Tatiana, a talented ballerina who was a former trainee of the Ruska Roma alongside Eve before she was dismissed. Daniel Bernhardt plays the Scarred Eye Assassin, after previously portraying Kirill in the first film.

Production

Development

Shay Hatten was inspired by the trailer to John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) to write a spec script about a ballerina-assassin. Although his action-thriller Ballerina was conceived as a standalone project, when Lionsgate acquired it in July 2017, they had Hatten rewrite it as part of the John Wick universe. Thunder Road would produce the film and some of its concepts were woven into John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), which features Unity Phelan portraying a ballerina. Hatten's script was voted onto The Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2017.

By October 2019, Len Wiseman was hired as director. Wiseman was endorsed for the job after pitching his take to producer Chad Stahelski, whom Wiseman had previously directed as a stunt performer in the 2007 film Live Free or Die Hard. In May 2020, it was reported that Lionsgate was casting its leading actress, with Chloë Grace Moretz as the template for the kind of talent they were looking for. Also that month, Stahelski confirmed that he and his 87Eleven stunt team would be working closely with Wiseman on the action sequences and stunts, while acknowledging the variety Wiseman's filmmaking style would bring to the John Wick franchise. At that point, Wiseman and Hatten were working on a newer draft of the script.