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Why The Continental Will "Tone It Down A Bit" With John Wick Action in Peacock Spinoff
"We are in multiple episodes and you have to delve into these characters and storylines."
The John Wick films can be boiled down to one key element: non-stop action. All four installments of the hit franchise fronted by Keanu Reeves' near-invincible hitman rarely stop moving — and that's a very good thing. Stuntman turned director Chad Stahelski perfectly understands how to utilize heavily choreographed set pieces as a way to advance the story. It's never just action for action's sake.
That tried and true formula will assume a slightly different form in Peacock's upcoming prequel limited series, The Continental (arriving sometime this September), which explores how a young Winston Scott (Colin Woodell) became manager of the killer-friendly hotel in '70s-era New York City.
RELATED: The Continental: Why Colin Woodell Didn’t Try To "Match” Ian McShane’s Winston From John Wick Films
Why The Continental prequel tones down the Keanu Reeves John Wick action
Recently speaking to IGN, Albert Hughes — executive producer and director of Episodes 1 and 3 — explained how he "didn’t feel confined" by the medium of television, which allowed for longer breaks between the bursts of violence.
"My goal was actually to tone it down just a bit because we aren't John Wick,” he said. "And don't get into action fatigue because we are in multiple episodes and you have to delve into these characters and storylines, which in a two-hour movie, you have to keep it moving."
"We definitely wanted to dig deeper into the characters, into the lore, into the world, into the mythology. That's the great thing about television,” added longtime Wick producer Basil Iwanyk. "The blessing and the curse of television is, with few exceptions, like Game of Thrones or whatever, you're not going to have the budget that you would have on a huge tentpole film. So you have to be clever about how you pull off the scope and the scale of the action."
With that said, viewers can still expect plenty of bullets and blood, particularly in the third and final episode, which Hughes (known for directing big screen projects like From Hell and The Book of Eli with his twin brother, Allen) teased as "57 minutes of action."
Mel Gibson, Mishel Prada, Ben Robson, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Nhung Kate, Jessica Allain, Ayomide Adegun, Jeremy Bobb, and Peter Greene co-star alongside Woodell. Erica Lee, Kirk Ward, Greg Coolidge, Chad Stahelski, Derek Kolstad, David Leitch, Shawn Simmons, Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, and Marshall Persinger are executive producers with Hughes and Iwanyk. Charlotte Brandstrom (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) helmed Episode 2
The Continental: From the World of John Wick checks into Peacock this September. A specific premiere date has yet to be announced.
Want more action in the meantime? The Fast and the Furious (2001), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011), and Furious 7 (2015) are all streaming on Peacock.
