The John Wick movies are absolutely top-tier action cinema: stylish, witty and pleasingly violent. Now, after cleaning up at the box office, Starz have announced that they’re teaming up with Lionsgate to develop The Continental, a TV spinoff that’ll explore the titular New York hotel in which the world’s top assassins can operate from and socialize amongst each other without fear of being killed (well, most of the time anyway).
Chris Collins (Sons of Anarchy and The Man in the High Castle) will write and serve as series showrunner, with Keanu Reeves and the creative minds behind the movies in executive producer roles. Starz president Chris Albrecht, meanwhile, was eager to hype up the show in a recent statement, saying:
“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.”
Ever since the first time we ventured into the plush interior of The Continental in the first John Wick, I’ve wanted to know more about the place. Every person in there looks as if they’ve got an exciting story to tell, and it seems like the perfect setting with which to explore the often surreal John Wick universe.
It’ll also be fun to see assassins working within the strict rules designed to keep the clientele from offing one another – even though the penalties for conducting business on the premises generally involve a grisly death, it’s difficult to keep a roomful of professional killers calm for too long.
Interestingly, the blurb says that The Continental will be set in Los Angeles, so perhaps we’ll be seeing a whole new branch of the hotel. I’d bet we’ll find out sometime in late 2018 or early 2019, when the show hits the air. With John Wick: Chapter 3 set for a May 2019 release, it looks as if next year will be the year of Wick and I, for one, can’t wait.
