124 min | R | June 6, 2025 | Lionsgate
Ana de Armas enters the Wick universe and proves she can carry an action franchise. Len Wiseman directs with brutal efficiency. The film earns its place in the world of professional killers.
John Wick spinoffs are a minefield. The original trilogy created a mythology and aesthetic so specific that expanding it risks dilution. Ballerina succeeds by staying focused. Eve Macarro begins her training as a Ruska Roma assassin between the events of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. The film uses the existing world without trying to explain or expand it. This is an origin story that understands less is more.
Ana de Armas plays Eve with fierce physicality and restrained emotion. She trained for months to perform the action choreography and it shows. The fight sequences are brutal and clearly staged in the John Wick style. Long takes. Practical stunts. Consequences for violence. De Armas commits completely and creates a character distinct from John Wick while inhabiting the same world. Keanu Reeves appears as John Wick in supporting capacity. Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, and the late Lance Reddick return. Norman Reedus and Gabriel Byrne join the cast and understand the tone.
Len Wiseman directed the first two Underworld films and knows how to stage action. The film maintains the aesthetic established by Chad Stahelski while finding its own rhythm. The kills are inventive. The world-building is consistent. Shay Hatten’s script does smart work with the Ruska Roma training protocols and assassin hierarchy. The film expands the lore without contradicting what came before.
This is a film that respects its source material and its audience. The action delivers. The character works. The mythology remains intact. This is how you expand a universe without destroying what made it special in the first place.