With a spinoff TV show on the way, John Wick stars Lance Reddick and Ian McShane reveal whether or not they’d want to appear in The Continental. When Lionsgate released the first John Wick film in 2014, not many were predicting it to become a trilogy films with spinoffs and a TV series potentially building off the Keanu Reeves led story. That was before John Wick got great reviews, quadrupled its budget at the box office, and rejuvenated Reeves’ career though.
The adrenaline-fueled action is one of the series’ defining qualities, but it has also excelled with a simple story and great world building. The first John Wick introduced audiences to The Continental, a hotel line that serves as a safe haven for assassins, run by McShane’s character Winston where Reddick’s Charon serves as the concierge. Then in John Wick: Chapter 2, the mythology of the world was further opened up through markers, the High Table, and more. The expansion of the world has recently led to Starz green lighting a TV show revolving around the hotel with Reeves set to make some type of appearance.
As part of the press junket for John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, Screen Rant had the opportunity to talk to Reddick and McShane about the threequel, their experience with the franchise, and a possible future. We specifically asked both if they had any interest in returning for a role on The Continental and got varying responses from them. Reddick said “it depends” but didn’t elaborate on what would draw him back to the role on the small screen. McShane on the other hand firmly said, “No, I mean I think they’d be fresh. That’s a different thing entirely.”
Reddick’s noncommittal response could largely come down to what the premise and setting for The Continental is. The series has, so far, only shown him at the New York Continental Hotel, so this would need to be the basis of the show for him to return, or Charon will need to be transferred to a new location altogether. Since the trailers for John Wick 3 have shown that Charon and Winston will help Wick even though he is excommunicado, then both of them could become targets of their own or have to leave The Continental behind.
As for McShane, there were rumors last year that he would make an appearance in The Continental. This would’ve been a great piece of connectivity between the series and the spinoff show, but McShane later clarified that he wouldn’t make an appearance but could lend his voice potentially. Now, it appears that he is not planning on making any type of return. Instead, he proposed during the interview that a woman should be put in charge of the hotel chain, so maybe that will be the direction The Continental goes instead. That said, there hasn’t been any news on The Continental lately, so it is unclear what stage it is even in, much less what it will ultimately focus on. If Reddick and McShane aren’t going to return for it though, then there’s even more reason to check out John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum to see if it could explain why.
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- John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Release Date: 2019-05-17