'John Wick' is coming to TV (and yes, Keanu Reeves will be there)
The wildly successful dog revenge fantasy franchise John Wick is coming to premium cable, and expanding the film's universe beyond the steely gaze and monotone voice of Keanu Reeves' titular character.
Starz and Lionsgate announced The Continental on Friday at the Television Critics Association Press Tour. While Reeves is attached to make some appearances, the TV adaptation will (as the name suggests) focus on The Continental Hotel, a refuge for the film's assassins that offers a host of new mysterious stories and characters.
"Set in a hyper-real version of Los Angeles, the series maintains the urgency of the action along with the dry humor from the John Wick movies," the press release read.
Franchise newcomer Chris Collins (who developed a name for himself through Sons of Anarchy, The Wire, and The Man in the High Castle) will be heading the series as showrunner. Many of the executive producers, however, are from the the films' original creative team, like Basil Iwanyk, co-director Chad Stahelski, and screenwriter Derek Kolstad. The film franchise's other co-director, David Leitch, is set to direct the TV series' first episode.
“This series is truly unlike anything else on TV,” said Starz President & CEO Chris Albrech, promising the same "thunderous fight sequences and intensely staged shootouts," while exploring "new darkly compelling characters who inhabit this underground world.”
There's no word on whether or not the series will have any crossover with the franchise's upcoming third installment, which is set to arrive in 2019.
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
