Lance Reddick to lend a little extra John Wick street cred to spin-off movie Ballerina
Reddick's polite but lethal concierge Charon will appear in the Ana De Armas-starring Wick spin-off
Lance Reddick, a stalwart of the John Wick movies, has signed on to reprise his role as Charon in the franchise’s upcoming spin-off film Ballerina, Variety reports.
The John Wick films have been trying to launch themselves into full-fledged cinematic universe territory for like half a decade at this point, with plans for multiple spin-offs—including a TV series, The Continental, which was formerly set up at Starz before shifting over to NBC’s Peacock—coming into existence right around the time that the success of John Wick: Chapter 2 made all involved realize they probably had A Thing on their hands.
Of those various spinoffs, none have had more runway laid for them at this point than Ana De Armas and Len Wiseman’s Ballerina, which was originally announced way back in 2017, and which will (eventually) see the Underworld director focus on one of those murder-trained dancers that Anjelica Huston is seen putting through the ringer in John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum.
Huston has already signed on for a part in the spin-off movie—as, reportedly, have series stars Keanu Reeves and Ian McShane. Now, Variety reports that Reddick has also signed on to lend a little gravitas to material that might, dare we say it, get a little silly otherwise, what with all these boutique murder hotels hiding in plain sight.
Reddick, of course, plays Charon, the concierge at The Continental hotel, that glitzy home for professional killers (and their weird, pirate-esque hordes of gold dubloons) of all stripes. Although Charon doesn’t have a huge part in any of the three Wick movies—with his biggest role popping up in the defense of the hotel in Parabellum—he does have considerable impact on account of being, well, Lance Reddick, a man who managed to lend a measure of intensity and interest to the Netflix Resident Evil show, of all things.
Ballerina is currently filming, with a release date still TBA. Reddick is also set to appear in John Wick: Chapter 4, which is set for a March 2023 release.