As I recently said while writing about Danny Ramirez’s clarification on the extent of Captain America: Brave New World’s reshoots, going back to film extra material comes with the territory these days with blockbuster productions. This also happened with Ballerina, the John Wick spinoff that has finally been released to the 2025 movies schedule. However, director Len Wiseman took time to also set the record straight concerning the reshoots for the action franchise’s latest installment. Frankly though, I’m more focused on how he revealed an amazing John Wick: Chapter 3 tie-in that was almost included in Ballerina.
Len Wiseman Is ‘Frustrated’ By How The Ballerina Reshoots Were Reported
Ballerina began principal photography in November 2022 and concluded in February 2023. Then in October 2024, it was reported that Chad Stahelski, who directed the first four John Wick movies and is the franchise’s creative overseer, had helmed several months of reshoots that overhauled much of the movie. Stahelski pushed back against claims of such extensiveness, saying it’d only been two weeks of addition photography that he collaborated on with Len Wiseman. The latter has now thrown his two cents on this subject into the mix, telling THR:
[Chad and I] were both frustrated about it. It’s a really frustrating thing [to hear such claims], and it happens more today than it did back in the day. There was additional shooting because the studio loved the movie. We had to take out some scenes from the script originally because we just didn’t have the resources or the schedule. So it was an exciting opportunity to go back and add more to the film. But when the press hears about that and the reports become whatever they are, it always has a negative connotation.
Lionsgate was pleased by an earlier cut of the movie and decided it was worth pouring in additional time and funds to make it even better, which included adding back those scenes that’d previously been removed. The point being, while the Ballerina reshoots were important, they were nowhere near on the same level as something like what 2017’s Justice League went through.
John Wick: Chapter – Parabellum (don’t worry, there are no spoilers here). However, it would have been a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment involving one of that movie’s best action scenes, as Ana de Armas’ Eve Macarro still would have been front and center in the spinoff’s scene, with Len Wiseman explaining:
As a fan, there were potential moments that I was really excited to work into the movie. In the scene where Eve first arrives at the Continental, you’d see a bunch of motorcycles speeding in the background of the city on the bridge. That would’ve been cool for anyone who’s really paying attention to detail. ‘There’s the samurai and John on motorcycles [from Chapter 3].’
Wiseman also mentioned that there was a time when Ballerina was going to end with Eve checking into The Continental and going up to her room. Then, as the movie ended with a view of the hotel, there would have been a “screech,” and two motorcycles would have crashed at its base. Meaning, Ballerina’s ending would have shown a different angle of when John Wick and Mark Dascasco’s Zero chaotically arrived at The Continental in Chapter 3. I’m not into that idea as much, but any excuse to revisit the motorcycle sequence would have definitely been welcome.
Head to your local theater now to see what did end up being included in Ballerina’s final cut, and you’re also welcome to read CinemaBlend’s Ballerina review. For those who are now in the mood to revisit John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, it can be streamed with a Peacock subscription.