Ballerina Closes Out Teasers with Bullet-Fueled Ballet

It’s that time again: we are three weeks away from the theatrical release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, the Ana de Armas–starring spin-off, and Lionsgate has shared its final trailer.

The events of the film take place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, so Ballerina will be set in 2019. In Parabellum, Keanu Reeves’ title character was declared “excommunicado” by the High Table for killing Santino D’Antonio on the grounds of the Continental Hotel, and with a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head, John Wick goes on the run across New York City, finding friends and allies until he arrives at the headquarters of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate.

Led by the elusive and powerful Director (Anjelica Huston), a group of young recruits were being trained to not only work for the crime family but to become merciless ballerina-assassins in the ballet that they perform for the Ruska Roma’s patrons. In Parabellum, a young ballerina is seen by a ghosted-out John Wick while on the stage, preparing for the dance; this young ballerina was Unity Phelan. In the spin-off, Ballerina, Ana de Armas will take the lead in the role of Eve Macarro, the young ballerina-assassin.

Ian McShane is returning as Winston, the manager of the Continental, while Anjelica Huston is returning as the Director, and Lance Reddick, who passed away in March of last year, in a sadly final role for him as the Continental’s resident Concierge, Charon. Gabriel Byrne is playing the role of the Chancellor, who will be playing the primary antagonist in the film, and who tries to rally an entire small town against Eve.

Sharon Duncan-Brewster plays Nogi, Eve’s mentor, while Norman Reedus appears as Daniel Pine. Joining the cast are both Catalina Sandino Moreno and David Castañeda, but their respective roles have not been made known.

A Tale of Revenge and Signature Wickedness

The first trailer for Ballerina was released back in September of last year, which primarily focused on the origins of the main character. Eve Macarro lost both of her parents at a young age and was taken in by the Ruska Roma as an assassin; she then set out on a path of revenge to avenge her father’s murder, which the trailer foreshadowed. She is, by her description, a “seeker of retribution,” and the final trailer confirms that vengeance is the name of the game for the ballerina.

The second trailer was released in March of this year and gave John Wick fans everything they were looking for — a face-to-face between the Wick and the Ballerina in a snowy, moody locale. This trailer wasn’t so much about Eve Macarro’s origins but showed her working to get revenge. It’s clear that this spin-off film is not only going to have both Eve Macarro and John Wick interact, but that their stories in Ballerina are likely to intertwine, with Wick offering some amount of guidance and mentorship to the young assassin.

The final trailer, like all good John Wick trailers, doesn’t give away any big plot points, but it does show exactly what we can expect from Ballerina from a production standpoint and what we should expect from Ana de Armas. The story is hers, and she shows no fear in taking over the role of a ballerina-assassin as she is killing off her competition with ease and grace.

The trailer cuts from an extreme close-up of Eve up in arms as John Wick is shooting at her with his .45 caliber pistol to a long shot, where the stakes become clearer. She’s surrounded by an entire group of bad guys who all have guns and who are coming for her, and Wick is still shooting at her, but there’s a particular quote that he spits out that makes it abundantly clear what her goals are in this film. “This isn’t done until they’re dead.” That quote, and how it is placed in this trailer, make it clear that Ballerina is going to continue the story of John Wick, but with a focus on a different perspective and on a protagonist that is arguably less burdened by grief and vengeance than the series’ namesake.

That being said, in typical Wick fashion, the style of fighting and choreography is slick, clean, and impressive; from close-quarters combat to gunfights to balletic death matches, Ana de Armas shows she has the chops to carry Ballerina on her own. The world building, so crucial in any film from the Wickverse, continues to build on the mythology and the lore without getting too complicated or obtuse, and while the director’s hands are still at the helm of the camera to this effect, it’s Ballerina‘s and Ana de Armas’ film.

With Keanu Reeves also taking on a substantial supporting role as John Wick, the spin-off film will likely be able to tread a delicate balance of character moments and wide-open action set pieces that the John Wick films have leaned into for almost two decades at this point. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is set to premiere in theaters on June 6th, 2025.