‘The Continental’ – Release Date & New Details About the ‘John Wick’ Spin-Off Series
The new series set in the John Wick universe hits the small screen this fall. The Continental focuses on Winston, Charon, and the infamous hotel.
There are many questions the central John Wick movies don’t answer about the High Table and the broad rules and traditions of the universe. The movies include what’s immediately relevant to John’s journey of revenge. It sounds like those questions will be answered in the upcoming series that’s focused on the hotels.
Initially, The Continental was supposed to come out before John Wick: Chapter 2 was released in theaters. The world has gotten in the way more than a few times. It was set to debut on Starz this year, but that’s changed recently. Production is moving forward, but now The Continental will be a Peacock streaming exclusive and will debut this year.
via Lionsgate
What We Know About The Continental
The show will focus on the neutral grounds where business is conducted – the Continental hotels. There, mercenaries can get a little shut-eye without worrying about getting assassinated (unless you’re John Wick). It will give a background of the world of assassins before the movies – the staff, the clientele, the marks. There will be some familiar names in the show, but John Wick is not one of them. Producer Chad Stahelski told Indiewire:
“I like telling stories from my one character’s perspective. Once you put that aside with the TV show, [you can] expand to all the different characters and follow them throughout their journey. You can be with the consigliere, concierge, the sommelier — you can be with all these different characters and walk through the world in different aspects; ones that I’m a little limited [from exploring] by staying with my lead guy.”
via Lionsgate
We’ll be seeing more of the people that keep The Continental running – from the front desk staff to the armorers. That doesn’t mean it won’t have the action that’s made the franchise successful. Stahelski is also hoping to get some Game of Thrones-level action into the series, but with John Wick‘s style. It’s not amazing CG or vast location shots, it’s amazing stunt work and world-building that will make this show.
It also takes us back in time – to the 1970s. Producer Erica Lee talked to Collider about that choice.
“We felt like doing a prequel, doing an alternate timeline gave us a lot of flexibility just in running parallel tracks. But also what I think people love so much about John Wick and the ‘John Wick’ world are learning about the hotels and the Easter eggs.
“We give so little about each character and about the hotel in each movie that I think people were really excited to learn more and dig deeper into The Continental like, what does the cleaner there look like? What is the staff like? How do you get into The Continental? How are the gold coins made? So, with this timeline and this setting, we’re allowed to do a really deep dive into that and explore a lot of that stuff.”
via Lionsgate
The Creators, Cast, and Release Details
The Continental is written and run by Chris Collins, who worked on Sons of Anarchy and The Wire. The executive producer list is filled with John Wick alumni, including Stahelski, Kolstad, Basil Iwanyk, and David Leitch. There will be three 90-minute episodes that are set in the same continuity – no time jumps. The creators are promising a good mix of story and the action the franchise is known for.
Since we’re in a different era, there are new actors. Colin Woodell is a young Winston Scott (who is played by Ian McShane in the movies) and Ayomide Adegun portrays a young Charon. The cast also includes Mel Gibson, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Jessica Allain, Mishel Prada, Nhung Kate, and Ben Robson.
The Continental will debut on Peacock at some point this September.
