News culture “They wanted to take advantage of the success of the films”: the stars of the John Wick saga were rather angry with this project, they did not even deign to watch it

Culture news “They wanted to take advantage of the success of the films”: the stars of the John Wick saga were rather angry with this project, they did not even deign to watch it

Try Amazon Prime free for 30 days

The Continental, the series in the John Wick universe

If you like well-choreographed and well-paced action films, you must have seen at least one film in the saga John Wick. Started in 2014 at the cinema, the latter now has no less than 4 filmseach featuring the famous Keanu Reeves in the main role. As a reminder, this saga follows the adventures of the hero of the same name, a true legend among hitmen. While he had decided to retire to enjoy his life with his partner, he is forced to return to service for reasons of personal revenge. One thing leading to another, he will challenge both the people directly responsible for the harm done to him, but also the entire society around which all of his colleagues operate.

A few months ago, in order to capitalize on the success of the saga, a spin-off miniseries from the John Wick universe has been released. With only three episodes (which still last around 1h30 each), the series The Continental attempted to develop the universe introduced in the films by exploring the past of Winston Scott, known as the owner of the Continental Hotel in New York in the original saga. In fact, the plot then took place in the 1970s and the characters were not played by the same actors, starting with Winston Scott himself. If you want to check it out for yourself, all three episodes are available on Amazon Prime Video.

The stars of the John Wick saga didn’t even watch it

Unfortunately for fans and producers, The Continental series did not really convince its audience. Indeed, since its release, it has not managed to exceed the score of 63% for criticism and 78% for spectators on Rotten Tomatoes. A result much lower than those of films which generally hover around 85%, or even almost 95% for the latest one. But where the problem lies is that even the main actors of the films did not bother to watch the series. Worse still, some like Ian McShane (who plays Winston Scott in the cinema) did not hesitate to express their opinion on the matter. Questioned by our colleagues from Moviewebhere is what the latter had to say on the subject:

No, I won’t watch it. I have no intention of doing so. I don’t think Keanu (Reeves) watched it, and neither did Chad (Stahelski, the director). It has nothing to do with our films. It’s just a question of making money for TV producers who wanted to profit from the success of the films. They never asked us anything so why should we be interested in watching it? I’m afraid the arrogance it took for them to release this series is getting over my head so I wish them well. I think we forgot about it as quickly as it arrived, right?

You would have understood it, Ian McShane really has no intention of giving any credit to The Continental series. Despite this first failure in this attempt to expand the John Wick universe, the spin-offs should not stop there. In fact, the film Ballerina is still in production and should be released in June 2024. As a reminder, the latter will follow a young killer from this same universe played by Ana De Armas. Given the title of the film, it’s a safe bet that she was trained by the same family as that of John Wick. Unlike The Continental, Ballerina should, however, take place more or less at the same time as the films, which leaves the door open for the appearance of some iconic characters from the saga. It remains to be seen whether this spin-off will be better than the series broadcast a few months ago.