Insider Drops Claims About How John Wick’s Chad Stahelski Jumped In To ‘Clean Up’ Ballerina Spinoff And How That’ll Impact His Highlander Reboot
2023 was an eventful year for the John Wick franchise, with John Wick: Chapter 4 crushing critically and commercially in theaters, and then the miniseries The Continental becoming available to stream with a Peacock subscription. Following a 2024 hiatus, fans will finally get to return to this world of colorful assassins next year, as the Ana de Armas-led spinoff From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is slated for the 2025 movies schedule. However, new details about the filming of Ballerina have emerged claiming that because franchise co-creator Chad Stahelski had to jump in to “clean up” the spinoff, this will end up impacting the making of the upcoming Highlander reboot.
Chad Stahelski Allegedly Reshot Most Of Ballerina
You may recall that back in February, Chad Stahelski, who’s directed all of the main John Wick movies, shared that he was teaming with Ballerina director Len Wiseman to shoot additional action sequences for the spinoff. Well, according to The Wrap, Stahelski’s involvement was a lot more extensive than that, with insiders who spoke to the publication claiming that he actually reshot most of the movie over the course of two to three months. One insider even said that Wiseman was not present on set when a “significant portion” of Ballerina was reshot in Budapest. Another insider stated:
Of course Chad had to clean up someone else’s mess. Remember, this film is basically ‘John Wick 3.5. This story happens before ‘John Wick 4’ and after that film, they can’t have a failure in anything ‘Wick’ related.
No specific details are provided in the article about what was allegedly wrong with the version of Ballerina that Len Wiseman shot during principal photography, but if this information is accurate (and it seems so given Ian McShane’s previous comments), it was apparently bad enough that Chad Stahelski felt it necessary to intervene. Granted, Stahelski was tapped by Lionsgate to oversee both the John Wick and Highlander franchises earlier this year, so he was always going to be involved with Ballerina to one degree or another. But with John Wick: Chapter 4 having been so successful, it’s all the more important for Ballerina to succeed rather than flop, and the studio evidently felt it was necessary for Stahelski to take over helming duties to right the ship.
The Ballerina Reshoots Will Reportedly Delay Highlander’s Production
So because Ballerina reportedly went through a major overhaul, this will in turn affect Highlander, which Chad Stahelski is also set to direct. As a result of the work he did on the first John Wick spinoff movie took so much time, it means the Henry Cavill-starring reboot will roll cameras later than expected. In the words of the aforementioned insider:
Chad is going to do ‘Highlander,’ but cleaning up ‘Ballerina’ pushed him by five months for sure.
This reported production delay is allegedly the reason why Henry Cavill signed onto the Voltron movie, as room opened up in his schedule. The article also mentions that work is still being done on the Highlander script, so that extra time will hopefully be beneficial for the story. Cavill has been tied to Highlander ever since it was reported he was in talks for the lead role in 2021, though it was another two years until his involvement was officially confirmed. Outside of following the basic premise of a group of immortals who are empowered by an energy called the Quickening and can only die when beheaded, no specific plot details for this reboot have been revealed yet.
Although it was rfepviously said that Highlander would be one of Lionsgate’s 2026 tentpole releases, it’s hard to say if that can still happen or if it will become necessary to push the movie to 2027. As for From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, it opens in theaters on June 6, 2025.
