Lance Reddick to lend a little extra John Wick street cred to spin-off movie Ballerina
Reddick's polite but lethal concierge Charon will appear in the Ana De Armas-starring Wick spin-off
Aux News John Wick
Lance Reddick, a stalwart of the John Wick movies, has signed on to reprise his role as Charon in the franchise’s upcoming spin-off film Ballerina, Variety reports.
The John Wick films have been trying to launch themselves into full-fledged cinematic universe territory for like half a decade at this point, with plans for multiple spin-offs—including a TV series, The Continental, which was formerly set up at Starz before shifting over to NBC’s Peacock—coming into existence right around the time that the success of John Wick: Chapter 2 made all involved realize they probably had A Thing on their hands.
Of those various spinoffs, none have had more runway laid for them at this point than Ana De Armas and Len Wiseman’s Ballerina, which was originally announced way back in 2017, and which will (eventually) see the Underworld director focus on one of those murder-trained dancers that Anjelica Huston is seen putting through the ringer in John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum.
Huston has already signed on for a part in the spin-off movie—as, reportedly, have series stars Keanu Reeves and Ian McShane. Now, Variety reports that Reddick has also signed on to lend a little gravitas to material that might, dare we say it, get a little silly otherwise, what with all these boutique murder hotels hiding in plain sight.
Reddick, of course, plays Charon, the concierge at The Continental hotel, that glitzy home for professional killers (and their weird, pirate-esque hordes of gold dubloons) of all stripes. Although Charon doesn’t have a huge part in any of the three Wick movies—with his biggest role popping up in the defense of the hotel in Parabellum—he does have considerable impact on account of being, well, Lance Reddick, a man who managed to lend a measure of intensity and interest to the Netflix Resident Evil show, of all things.
Ballerina is currently filming, with a release date still TBA. Reddick is also set to appear in John Wick: Chapter 4, which is set for a March 2023 release.
19 Comments
Rewatched The Wire a couple weeks back…There is something about the cadence inflection, and tone in how Lance Reddick speaks that is incredibly pleasing. He also narrated a part in Batman Unburied and absolutely killed it. Dude could read a phone book and keep me intrigued…
Watch the Amazon show Bosch to also get some incredibly Lance Reddick Lance Reddick.
I wouldn’t quite go that far, since I don’t find anything inherently pleasing about his voice. But he is very good at projecting gravitas. A Lance Reddick character is understood to have very little tolerance for nonsense, shenanigans or tomfoolery. And if another character is bringing even a hint of the above, they better be bringing something else to keep Lance Reddick Character from sending their ass back to kindergarten where it belongs.
You need to watch Bosch if you haven’t seen it. There are quite a few scenes of Lance Reddick saying Bosch’s name with restrained disgust in a way only Lance Reddick can.
He was brilliant in Batman Unburied. Curious, what were your thoughts on Winston Duke’s Batman/Bruce?
It goes unsaid, really, that emphasis was put on using actors of color. I honestly had no clue until I started listening to the PC and began googling the cast.I would say you could take the entire cast and do a live action film and W. Duke would basically be the perfect POC to play Batman. He is a big, athletic, good looking guy and a great actor with tons of charisma. I thought he was very convincing as Bruce Wayne, thought the whole PC was great, and would love to see it animated.
Well said! I enjoyed the hell out of it. And the bit where Bruce is talking to his parents was an emotional gut-punch that I wasn’t expecting from a podcast.
Excellent, I’ve been meaning to listen to this, it’s been in my queue for a few months. I don’t generally listen to “audio drama” type podcasts, but I love Reddick and Duke, great actors with fantastic voices, figured that would be a perfect mix with a Batman story.Thanks for the reminder (@Are you my dad? too).
I don’t listen to “audio drama” really either, though a friend of mine from the UK listens to them religiously, those BBC Radio productions. She turned me on to the Batman one. Writer/producer David S. Goyer wrote the PC, he is credited on the Nolan Batman series and its all sorta in that wheelhouse, dark and brooding. Sorta a mash-up of Zodiac, Mindhunter, and a true crime podcast. It really humanizes B. Wayne/Batman and turns him into a sort of detective. The podcast needs to be animated, with a Mature rating.
God…Kinja is trash, it won’t let me edit out the David S. Goyer bit at the beginning…
Hahaha, I was thinking, “How did they know?” 😀
‘This…is Bullshit’ is an all-time great line reading, the voice of a guy who’s been politic and respectful finally leading into the absurdity of Baltimore politics and policing.
Still would love to know what his intended role on LOST was prior to the Writers Strike and getting cast on Fringe.
If I remember correctly it was supposed to be more substantial than it was, but that could be said about 2/3s of the Lost cast. Thankfully we spent soooooo much time with Charlie….
My gut says pre-strike Reddick was going to be the Man in Black or work for him and there was going to be more Jacob vs MIB stuff happening off island that just got cut for time.
All this love for Reddick’s work and no mention of The Wire? One of the best roles he has embodied.
Lance Reddick is the best! I want to be all cool and say I’ve been a fan since Oz or The Wire but it was Fringe. Loved me some Fringe!