John Wick TV Series The Continental Eyed for Late 2021
Starz is developing a John Wick TV series spinoff called "The Continental." So dress well, because this'll be a five-star experience!
| | How far can a delightful joke be stretched? We’ll soon find out, because the amusing five-star hotel with likely Michelin Star dining in John Wick, which grew into being a whole underground franchise with its own governing bylaws and multiple, unique-to-assassins currencies in two (soon to be three) sequel films, is about to be the basis of its own TV show, titled The Continental! So, dress well, because the spinoff is headed to Starz.
Plans have been in the works for a small-screen expansion of the big screen John Wick mythology going back to 2017, when film directors Chad Stahelski and Derek Kolstad – after initially floating the ultimately-nixed idea to make first sequel John Wick: Chapter 2 into a prequel – revealed that studio Lionsgate had interest in a prequel television series, thus getting that ball rolling. Indeed, the project gained momentum in early 2018, when the Winter TCAs yielded the news that the would-be series was headed to premium cable channel Starz. – Two years later, things have been rather quiet on The Continental front… until now.
John Wick TV Series The Continental Release Date
The Continental is now on track for a release sometime in late 2021.
Starz President and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch took to the 2020 Winter TCAs, providing a long-awaited update on The Continental, not only confirming that it’s still very much in development, but confirming that the cable channel plans to premiere the series sometime after the fourth film, John Wick: Chapter 4 hits theaters on May 21, 2021. As Hirsch explains (via Deadline), “I had a meeting on a season pitch for this yesterday. We like the group of writers, and we’re trying to get it in the right place so it doesn’t interfere with the motion picture. It will air sometime after the fourth movie.”
Further Reading: Ballerina: John Wick Spinoff Taps Len Wiseman To Direct
John Wick TV Series The Continental Story
Back at the 2019 Summer TCAs, Hirsh hinted that the series would explore the origin story of the titular assassin-housing hotel, also teasing the idea that Keanu Reeves would make an appearance onscreen and serve as an executive producer. The origin idea might complement the initial logline for the series, which revealed that we’ll also discover a new branch of the Continental in the television series, this time in Los Angeles (the films introduced us to the New York City Continental, as well as seemingly more ancient satellite in Rome during John Wick: Chapter 2).
John Wick TV Series The Continental Details
The 2018 TCA announcement for The Continental hinted a very healthy and synergetic relationship between Lionsgate and Starz. It was only in 2016 when the movie studio agreed to pay $4.4 billion for the premium cable series of networks, which has led to strong results here with the crossover of the John Wick brand, which also indicates we’re beginning to see something of a shared John Wick universe. And given how deliciously preposterous those movies are, the prospect curiously does not cause us to groan.
The Continental will be executive produced and overseen by showrunner Chris Collins (who was an executive producer on Sons of Anarchy and a writer on The Wire). The John Wick movies’ stable of executive producers will also enjoy those titles on The Continental, including Keanu Reeves, Basil Iwanyk, Chad Stahelski, Derek Kolstad, and David Leitch. Kolstad is also the screenwriting mastermind on the films. Stahelski, meanwhile, will continue his directorial appointments at the Continental’s undoubtedly austere lobby by directing The Continental pilot after previously directing 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, 2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2 and co-directing 2014’s first John Wick with Leitch (who went on afterward to direct Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2).
The series will study the type of travelers who find refuge underneath the roof of a Continental hotel banner—they can’t all be assassins and mob bosses, right?—as well as further develop the dryly comical professionalism and pleasantries of a staff servicing killers. In other words, just like any other luxury hotel, right?
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.