Exciting details of John Wick spin-off series, The Continental, revealed

Bittersweet news today for fans of the John Wick world…

So, we’ve known for a while that John Wick spin-off, The Continental, was in development and later we had reported that Keanu Reeves would likely appear from time-to-time (here) with Starz – where it will air – head of programming Carmi Zlotnik saying: “You can expect to see him [Reeves as John WIck] at some point of the series.”

However, it seems now that Reeves – who is currently involved in the fourth and fifth installments in the franchise (here) – will not be appearing after all. And with good reason.

Deadline reports that Kevin Beggs, president of Lionsgate Television Group, says that a Keanu Reeves cameo “is unlikely to happen”.

However, it seems that it’s not because there’s no budget to Reeves is refusing to appear or anything like that, but it’s because the series will be set 40 years before the John Wick movies: “We’re way back in time, way back pre-John Wick and even pre-young John Wick, that character is not finding his way into the universe. We are in the John Wick universe, but it’s way back in time. Think about the Game of Thrones prequels before you know any of the players, but you do know the world.”

That said, he adds: “I never rule out anything, but at this point [Keanu Reeves is] pretty busy making his movies which are very important to us.”

Beggs goes on to offer some exciting details about the series: “We took a lot of pitches, and then the creative team from this obscure little show called Wayne that was on YouTube came to us with their take.

“We were really blown away because it solved a bunch of problems and was super exciting, about a crumbling New York in the 1970s with a garbage strike that has piled up bags of garbage to the third floor of most brownstones.”

And yes, there’s going to be a Mafia influence too.

So, a Joker tone, then? I like it.

It seems that Ian McShane’s character, Winston, who, in the movies, owns The Continental Hotels – a chain all over the globe that caters to hit-men, murders and assassins but has a strict code within its walls – will appear in the series as a much-younger version of himself and McShane will not be playing the role… although he may narrate the series.

“What we’re exploring in The Continental is the young Winston and how it came to be that he and his team of confederates found their way into this hotel which we have met for the first time in the movie franchise 40 years later,” Beggs says.

“That’s the arena. I won’t give away more than that, but Starz really leaned into this take also, and they have been great collaborators. And how we’ve approached this first season is as three essentially 90-minute events which you could construe as a limited series or a limited event series.”

So, the first season is three movie-length adventures set in the 1970s? Love it!

As for John Wick himself, as we said above, there’s at least two more movies coming with spin-offs planned too (here) and, let’s not forget, we’re still hoping for that crossover with Nobody (here).

So, there we have it… this all sounds very exciting and I do love the Wick universe, so if it can stand up to that level of great, I’ll be coming back for more as and when it appears.

Will you? Let me know, folks…