- Lionsgate has released a new trailer for John Wick spin-off film Ballerina
- The latest footage implies Keanu Reeves' hitman won't just cameo in it
- The Ana de Armas-starring action film will be released in June
Lionsgate has released a new trailer for its forthcoming Ballerina movie, and it indicates that Keanu Reeves' John Wick will play a far bigger role in the story than we realized.
Ballerina is the second spin-off project set in the John Wick franchise and will gracefully spin its way into theaters in early June. And, with one of 2025's most anticipated new movies' release drawing ever closer, Lionsgate has whet our appetite for its arrival with another official trailer – one that surprisingly puts Reeves' hitman front and center.
Ballerina's first trailer had everyone asking the same question about Reeves' appearance. Now, its latest teaser confirms Wick will be sent after Ana de Armas' Eve Macarro, the film's protagonist whose on a one-woman crusade to track down and kill the individuals who murdered her family. Her quest for vengeance, though, threatens to up-end the established order of the hitman-criminal underworld, which is why Wick is enlisted to use his special talents to stop Macarro.
Reeves is a talented and beloved actor, while Wick is one of his most famous roles among cinephiles. It's no great surprise, then, that Lionsgate is leaning heavily on Wick's appearance in Ballerina to help get bums on seats.
As much as Ballerina's official trailer makes it seem like he'll have a big role to play in its story, though, there's nothing to say that he actually will.
The footage in said teaser could be part of a 10- to 15-minute segment that he shows up in. So, while Wick doesn't appear as if he'll just have a cameo role where he simply crosses paths with Macarro, I'd be amazed if Reeves is part of proceedings for anything longer than an extended sequence in Ballerina's middle act. After all, this is de Armas' movie, so Lionsgate won't want to overshadow Macarro in her own movie... right?
Is Ballerina a prequel movie? Where does it sit on the John Wick timeline?
Ballerina's story actually runs parallel to events that take place in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
It's not a prequel in the traditional sense, then – i.e., one that precedes the action movie series' first film. However, it plays out before John Wick: Chapter 4, so it's technically a prequel to Reeves' most recent outing as the famous hitman.
Who is part of the Ballerina movie cast?
De Armas and Reeves notwithstanding, there'll be a few familiar faces, plus some new ones, to look out for in Ballerina.
Ian McShane and the late Lance Reddick reprise their roles as Winston Scott and Charon from the first four John Wick films. Ballerina will mark the final-ever role of Reddick's career, too, following his shock death in March 2023.
Joining the aforementioned quartet on the cast roster are Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus. Huston returns as The Director, aka the leader of the New York branch of the Ruska Roma crime enterprise, which trained Macarro to become an assassin when she was just a child. The Director is also Wick's adoptive mother, which is why she enlists his help to stop Macarro.
The Walking Dead alumnus Reedus, meanwhile, will play someone called Pine. It's unclear who Byrne and Moreno will play.
When will Ballerina be released in theaters?
Ballerina will dance into cinemas on June 6 in the US and Australia. UK viewers can catch it in their local multiplex or independent theater a day later on June 7.
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