John Wick TV series spin-off The Continental in the works with Keanu Reeves set to produce

The John Wick film franchise — starring Keanu Reeves as the titular assassin — is getting an official TV show spin-off having found a home on American network Starz. [caption id=“attachment_4302301” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Poster for John Wick 2. Lionsgate[/caption] Deadline reports that the previously rumoured series was confimed at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. Called The Continental, it will see Starz team up with production company Lionsgate to bring Wick to the small screen. The story will take place at the Continental hotel, which serves as a refuge for the world’s deadliest assassins. Chris Albrecht, Starz president and CEO, said, “This series is truly unlike anything else on TV. The Continental promises to include the thunderous fight sequences and intensely staged shootouts between professional assassins and their targets that fans have come to expect in the John Wick movie franchise as well as introducing some new, darkly compelling characters who inhabit this underground world.” [caption id=“attachment_4302297” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still of the Continental Hotel in John Wick[/caption] Chris Collins, whose credits include The Wire, Sons of Anarchy and The Man in the High Castle, will write the series and serve as showrunner. Reeves may reprise his role as Wick “at some point” and will also serve as co-executive producer along with Basil Iwanyk and Chad Stahelski, who directed the John Wick films. John Wick, the slick 2014 action thriller from Lionsgate made for around $20 million, earned critical praise and marked a box office comeback for Reeves after a handful of low-performing films. Reeves did not need much persuasion to reprise his role as a lethal retired hitman whose path to revenge sees him killing dozens more in the sequel John Wick: Chapter 2. After the death of his puppy and the theft of his car led the hitman on a bloody rampage in 2014’s hit action thriller John Wick, the sequel delved into the character’s murky past. It included the emergence of a rival assassin and a nefarious Italian playboy who destroys Wick’s home, the only reminder of his once-happy life, and sets a bounty on Wick’s head, causing the hitman to go back underground. A third entry is expected to hit cinema screens in May 2019.