 |
| Lionsgate |
We’ve long known since last summer that a television spin-off series set in the John Wick universe was in the making. Pan over now to this week’s events over at the Television Critics Association where news is just making headway for the series, The Continental, with word that the show has landed at Starz with actor Keanu Reeves attached.
Serving as showrunner will be Chris Collins (Sons of Anarchy, The Wire, Man in the High Castle) who will also pen the script outlining the show’s forte exploring the auspices of the titular assassins’ luxury hotel chain as seen in 2014’s John Wick and last year’s John Wick: Chapter Two. Thunder Road’s Basil Iwaynk is executive producing along with franchise scribe Derek Kolstad, who has been building up his workload ever since then in addition to his latest start on STXfilms’s Nobody with 87Eleven.
Chad Stahelski and David Leitch who helmed the 2014 film and shared seperate duties on its sequel will also executive produce in addition to the franchise’s star, actor Keanu Reeves. Reportedly the actor has not yet confirmed an on-screen role for the show while Stahelski teased the possibility of Reeves making an appearance.
Stahelski is slated to direct the premiere for the show which would expand the universe as is what appears to be happening with previous word on another film project set at Lionsgate in the John Wick titled Ballerina from burgeoning screenwriter Shay Hatten. Starz, which owns Lionsgate, will retain domestic multiplatform pay TV and SVOD rights to the series, with the latter controlling international, domestic and home release rights.
via The Hollywood Reporter:
“This series is truly unlike anything else on TV,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said. “The Continental promises to include the thunderous fight sequences and intensely staged shootouts between professional assassins and their targets that fans have come to expect in the John Wick movie franchise as well as introducing some new, darkly compelling characters who inhabit this underground world.”
The franchise itself has accumulated more than $250 million dollars globally between both films with Stahelski and Reeves reuniting for John Wick: Chapter Three ahead of its May 17, 2019 release.