Ballerina is on HBO Max, John Wick fans need to give it the chance it deserves

I can’t imagine directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, writer Derek Kolstad, and legendary actor Keanu Reeves knew they were kicking off one of the 21st century’s best action franchises with 2014’s John Wick, but that’s exactly what they did. In the 12 years since John Wick, the franchise has seen three sequels, a comic series, an indie game, and an upcoming AAA video game, among other future projects. The John Wick cinematic universe also expanded with the 2025 spinoff film Ballerina, the overlooked black sheep of the series that’s way better than its so-so Metacritic score or meager box office returns would have you believe.

Ballerina wasn’t initially conceived of as a John Wick film, though writer Shay Hatten was inspired by the trailer for John Wick: Chapter 2 to write his own wild assassin film. Lionsgate acquired it and brought Hatten on to work on the next two John Wick films while also tinkering with his original Ballerina script to fit it into the assassin-filled world of the Wick franchise. Ballerina also had a long and troubled shoot before eventually landing in theaters last summer, but the final product makes for one of the best action films in years.

Starring Ana de Armas as the green assassin Eve Macarro, Ballerina is a lot like the first John Wick film in that its protagonist is primarily concerned with getting revenge, the rest of the world be damned. Macarro’s father is killed by mysterious figures in the film’s opening action sequence, setting her down a path toward becoming a professional killer herself. She’s taken in by John Wick 3: Parabellum’s The Director (Anjelica Huston) and trained as both a ballerina and a killer. Eventually, she breaks rank and travels to Europe to enact her revenge. Many set pieces and shootouts follow.

Macarro’s first action sequence doubles as a great introduction to the adult version of the character. Like so many of the franchise’s gunfights, it takes place at a nightclub. Macarro’s task is to protect a target, not kill one, so her gun only has rubber bullets. She quickly ditches it for melee fights with improvised weapons, like metal pipes and a hammer. Macarro’s brutality is on full display.

Unlike the more experienced Wick, who I can only assume has been headshotting goons since he learned how to walk, Macarro is still learning how to fight and survive. Throughout Ballerina, she’ll grab anything around her to win a fight, like using ice skates as blades or smashing plates over an enemy’s head while they both search for a dropped pistol (the funniest and best moment of the film). One scene finds her without any guns, so she has to blow through a team of baddies using only hand grenades.

Through sheer determination, Eve becomes a fearsome killer by the end of the film, capable of mounting a siege on her own. That is, until Wick shows up. I understand the marketing and financial reasons for Reeves’ inclusion as Wick — this series was built on his shoulders, after all — but thematically, his appearance at the end undermines Macarro’s growth. This is her film; she should have been able to see it through on her own. She also stands no chance during their one-on-one fight, even though we’ve seen several low-level henchmen give Wick a good walloping, undercutting just how lethal she’s been up until that point.

Minor criticism aside, Ballerina is an enjoyable ride. It doesn’t relent, throwing Macarro from fight to fight, and giving her real internal motivation to seek those fights out. It’s the most personal one of these films since the first, and shows that the series can excel outside of a focus on Wick — something the spin-off starring John Wick 4’s Caine and Akira will also attempt.

Image: Lionsgate

Director Len Wiseman has ideas for where Macarro could go next. (“Her mother’s dead, but in this world, you never know who’s really dead,” he told Entertainment Weekly.) Despite Wiseman’s ideas, however, a Ballerina sequel seems doubtful. Distributor Lionsgate hasn’t commented on the matter yet, but I can only imagine the writing’s on the wall. Those meager box office returns mentioned above? Ballerina only made $137 million against a $90 million budget, and typical Hollywood convention holds that a film has to make twice its production budget to start being profitable.

It’s also unlikely Macarro shows up in John Wick 5 as director Stahelski wants to explore something other than High Table shenanigans in the next entry, though no plot details have been confirmed yet. Regardless of whether Macarro’s journey continues or not, Ballerina is well worth a watch for its great action, with plenty of creative choreography, and personal stakes. It stands tall next to its John Wick counterparts.

Ballerina is streaming on HBO Max now.