If the first theatrical John Wick spinoff was among your most anticipated movies of 2024, you’ll be sadder today. Ballerina has danced into summer 2025 in order to allow its action sequences to be beefed up a bit.
The long-in-the-works action flick had Ana de Armas (of 007 and Knives Out fame) locked in to star for a very very long time before finding its director in Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard), who is as safe as you can go with a gritty action filmmaker. Well, according to Deadline, he maybe wasn’t the best man for the job.
Wiseman certainly is an effective director for any studio looking to rush something out of the door and wow the more casual audiences, but it seems like producer expectations are understandably high after the huge success of the fourth John Wick movie last year. This has made Lionsgate, the main studio behind the hit franchise, push Ballerina to June 6, 2025 release date, instead of the previously planned arrival time of June 7, 2024.
Deadline adds that John Wick franchise overlord Chad Stahelski, who’s looking to direct a Highlander reboot and a Ghost of Tsushima adaptation next, has been planning major reshoots and additional action scenes alongside Wiseman. This is surely for the best.
Ballerina’s former summer 2024 slot hasn’t been left open, as the seemingly cursed (but now nearly finished) reboot of The Crow, starring everyone’s favorite sicko Bill Skarsgård, will be opening now on June 7 instead.