From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, or simply Ballerina, is an upcoming American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten. It is the fifth film in the John Wick franchise, serving as a spin-off set between the events of Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) and Chapter 4 (2023).

It stars Ana de Armas in the lead role, alongside Anjelica Huston, Lance Reddick (in his final screen appearance), Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves reprising their roles, while Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus join the cast. In the film, ballerina-assassin Eve Macarro (Armas) trains as an assassin of the Ruska Roma.

Lionsgate acquired Hatten’s spec script for the film in 2017, leading to him contributing to the final screenplay for Parabellum and then serving as the lead writer for Chapter 4. In October 2019, Wiseman was hired as director, with Chad Stahelski confirmed as a producer by May 2020. Ballerina was officially announced in April 2022,

with de Armas confirmed to be replacing Unity Phelan, who portrayed the character in Parabellum, in the lead role; by that December, the rest of the main cast was rounded out. Principal photography began soon after, taking place in Prague, Czech Republic. Additional action sequences were shot starting in February 2024.

In July 2017, Lionsgate Films acquired Shay Hatten’s action thriller Ballerina, with Thunder Road Films producing the film with Hatten rewriting the script to be a part of the John Wick franchise, with the concepts of Ballerina ultimately being written into the third main film, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), with a ballerina portrayed by Unity Phelan making an appearance.[16] At the end of the year, the script was voted onto The Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2017.[17] By October 2019, Len Wiseman was hired to direct the film.[18] In May 2020, it was reported that the studio was looking for an actress to star in the film, with Chloë Grace Moretz as the template for the kind of talent they were looking for.[19] Stahelski met with Wiseman, and approached executives to hire the filmmaker. He confirmed that he and his team will work closely with Wiseman on the action sequences and stunts for the film, while acknowledging that Wiseman’s filmmaking style will add variety to the franchise. At that point, Wiseman and Hatten were working on a newer draft of the script.[20] By October 2021, Ana de Armas entered negotiations to play the titular character, a ballerina-assassin.[21] By April 2022, Lionsgate officially announced the film at CinemaCon, and said that de Armas would star in the lead role.[22] In July 2022, Emerald Fennell was hired to contribute to the script as one of its writers.