You know a spinoff is in big trouble when the guys who made the franchise aren’t involved. That’s exactly what happened with The Continental, the Peacock series that aimed to expand the John Wick universe by exploring Winston’s rise in the 1970s. While it found an audience and broke some streaming records, John Wick director and co-creator Chad Stahelski says he and Keanu Reeves were mostly sidelined — and it shows.
“Keanu and I were — I wouldn’t say sidelined, but our opinion was heard and not really noted,” Stahelski revealed to THR. “[The studio] tried to convince me they knew what they were doing. A group of individuals thought they had the magic sauce.”
What exactly went wrong? Stahelski didn’t mince words about what makes the Wick universe work — and why a checklist approach just doesn’t cut it.
“If you take out Basil Iwanyk’s producing intuitiveness, if you take out Keanu’s way of delivering quirky dialogue and if you take out all the visuals I have in my head from Wong Kar-wai, anime, Leone, Bernardo Bertucci or Andrei Tchaikovsky … then it’s not the same thing. They thought this was as easy as using anamorphic lenses, do a kooky hotel, put in weird dialogue, and insert crime drama.”
Why Does ‘John Wick’ Work?
Stahelski doubled down on the fact that the John Wick franchise thrives because of its constantly evolving, collaborative creative process — something that doesn’t translate well to a rigidly structured TV production.
“If you saw our process, you’d be like, ‘You’re telling me this billion dollar franchise does it this way?’ I’m scouting my next film in London and we saw a cool location yesterday which totally changed the second act. We rewrote the whole thing. I find great cast members and rewrite their parts constantly. That’s what makes [the movies] so good and organic — we’re constantly upgrading.”
Unfortunately, that kind of on-the-fly creativity doesn’t always fly with a studio focused on locking budgets and timelines. Stahelski noted the difference: “While we’re saying, ‘Just write the check, we’ll see you at the finish line,’ [the studio] likes to know what they’re getting for their buck.”
Despite his criticisms, Stahelski acknowledged the ambition behind The Continental, and with a new series titled The High Table on the way — with Reeves and Stahelski back as executive producers — the creative team appears ready to reclaim control over the Wick universe on TV.
The Continental is streaming now on Peacock.
Source: THR