Ballerina, the John Wick spinoff starring Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves that filmed in Prague and other locations across the Czech Republic last winter, has been pushed back to a June 6, 2025 release date, reports Deadline. It had previously been slated to release in just a few months, on June 7, 2024.
The change in dates comes with the news that Ballerina will undergo additional reshoots with original John Wick director Chad Stahelski, who recently signed a contract with Lionsgate to oversee the entire franchise. Stahelski will work with Ballerina director Len Wiseman on the additional scenes.
Ballerina‘s reshoots would seem to imply that the cast and crew are heading back to Prague sometime this year, but that has yet to be officially confirmed. Deadline references “additional action sequences” for the movie, meaning they could potentially be unconnected to sequences that filmed in the Czech Republic last year.
The Czech production of Ballerina was handled by Czech Anglo Productions in the winter of 2022-23. In Prague, filming took place at the National Theatre’s Nová scéna, the Masarykovo nádraží train station, and areas of Karlín and Bubeneč, in additional to studio work at Barrandov Studio.
Outside of Prague, filming for Ballerina took place at Dolní Beřkovice Castle, Kačina Castle, the ruins of the Belvedere Castle outside of Kutná Hora, and areas in the Central Bohemian Region including Toušeň, Semily, Kouřim, Kladno, and Kolín.
Ballerina stars Ana de Armas as Rooney, a ballerina within the John Wick world of assassins who seeks revenge against those who killed her family. Anjelica Huston reprises her role as The Director, leader of the Ruska Roma crime family from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The movie reportedly takes place in-between the events of that film and John Wick: Chapter 4.
Ian McShane and Lance Reddick also reprise their roles from the John Wick movies as Winston and Charon, owner and concierge at the New York City’s Continental Hotel who shelter Rooney during the events of Ballerina. The film will likely be the final on-screen appearance of Reddick, who passed away last March.
Keanu Reeves shot scenes for Ballerina in Prague and at the Belvedere ruins, though his role in the spinoff appears to be a minor one. Gabriel Byrne will star as the primary antagonist of the movie, with Norman Reedus and Catalina Sandino Moreno also cast in unspecified roles.
Ballerina was directed by Len Wiseman from a screenplay by Shay Hatten, with additional rewrites from Michael Finch and Emerald Fennell (Saltburn). The upcoming reshoots are not uncommon for a major action movie; Extraction II, starring Chris Hemsworth, also returned to Prague to shoot additional material a year after its primary production.
Conveniently enough, Lionsgate had another Prague-shot production to slide into Ballerina‘s previously-scheduled release slot. The Crow, a new version of the 1994 classic that stars Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs which was filmed in and around Prague in the summer of 2022, will now release on June 7, 2024.
