The John Wick spinoff Ballerina, which was set for a theatrical release in 2024, is delayed by a year with new action scenes in the works.
The John Wick spinoff Ballerina has had its release date delayed. The movie is set to follow Ana de Armas as Rooney, a vengeful ballerina who was previously played by Unity Phelan in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. It will be the second spinoff from the Keanu Reeves action franchise after the miniseries The Continental: From the World of John Wick, which premiered on Peacock in 2023.
Per Deadline, the Ballerina release date has been pushed back to June 6, 2025. This is just under a year after the movie’s original planned release date of June 7, 2024. Per their report, newly appointed franchise overseer Chad Stahelski is working with director Len Wiseman to craft several action sequences that will be added to the movie, which completed principal photography in early 2023.
Is the Ballerina Release Date Delay a Good Thing?
It remains to be seen if pushing back the new installment in the John Wick franchise will prove to pay dividends. Having directed all four movies in the universe of the franchise thus far, Stahelski’s experience will likely be invaluable in making sure that Ballerina stays consistent with what audiences expect from the series. His experience as a stunt performer and stunt coordinator will very likely also help to spice up the action in the movie, as it did with the previous Wick movies.
However, giving up a 2024 release date means that the movie will open in a more crowded market. Many movies that were originally slated for 2024 already had to be pushed to 2025 amid the dual 2023 strikes in which writers and then actors fought for fair pay. Having a summer 2024 release date would have meant big tentpole releases were thinner on the ground, which could have given the Ballerina cast more airtime to promote the movie and possibly led a broader audience to buy tickets for the movie due to a lack of competitive titles.
In addition to Ana de Armas, Ballerina stars Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves.
Although the full slate of 2025 movie releases has not yet been set, Ballerina will already have to contend with quite a few competitive blockbusters. Movies that have already been set for release in June 2025 alone include the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, The Black Phone 2, and the live-action Moana. With so many major releases that summer, the movie will probably require all the extra action it can get, in order to stand out.
