Halle Berry’s Sofia made quite the impression in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Though she only appeared in three extended scenes, those may have been the best bits of the film.
For those who haven’t seen it, Berry’s Sofia is a veteran assassin and manager at the Moroccan Continental who owes Keanu Reeves’ John a favor. The pair bond over their love of dogs as they head out with Sofia’s two Belgian Malinois hounds in tow to meet Jerome Flynn’s villainous Barracuda. Barracuda then does the one thing you definitely don’t want to do in a John Wick movie: he shoots one of the dogs.
Fortunately, this dog’s wearing a bulletproof vest. Even so, it leads into a brutal and amazing extended action sequence where the two assassins (and the dogs) kick some serious ass. And now it seems that we might get to see more of Sofia and her faithful hounds, as our sources – the same ones who told us a Green Lantern show is coming to HBO Max and John Cena is playing Vin Diesel’s brother in Fast & Furious 9, both of which turned out to be true – say that a John Wick spinoff is in development and will focus on Sofia on the hunt for her daughter.
This project may be the second female-led John Wick spinoff we get, too, as Ballerina is also in production. That pic will star Unity Phelan’s ballerina assassin character from the third film as she gets revenge on the men who killed her family. John Wick: Chapter 3 screenwriter Shay Hatten is on script duties with veteran action director Len Wiseman helming the project.
But Phelan will have to put some serious effort in to match Berry’s dedication. During the making of John Wick 3, director Chad Stahelski revealed to EW how much work the actress put into training to play Sofia, as he explained:
“She would have to do three hours of martial arts, two hours of guns, and then, because the dogs are so sensitive, Halle had to become a trainer for the animals. So, she [spent] another three, four hours a day just hanging out with the dogs, and giving them commands, and telling them what to do. That is a massive time commitment for an actress of her caliber that could be making millions of dollars elsewhere on other jobs. She just wanted to blow up everything to make a statement, saying, ‘Look at me, look what I can do,’ you know, pretty much, ‘Fuck y’all.’ [Laughs]”
Hell yeah. Fingers crossed this can match the action intensity of the main franchise. There’s no word yet on when it’s going to be out, but John Wick 4 is currently scheduled for release on May 21st, 2021.
