5 ways Ballerina expands the John Wick world & teases what's next for the franchise

The freshly released film from the John Wick franchise, Ballerina, is the fifth film in the series.

Starring Ana de Armas as the lethal assassin Eve Maccaro, her story lies in the middle of the timelines of the third and the fourth films of the franchise, John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4.

The plot of the film explores the journey of Eve, who, after the murder of her father, Javier, gets enrolled in Ruska Roma and prepares to kill the perpetrators of Javier's killing. The film broadens the landscape of the John Wick world and also gives us hints and possibilities about the franchise's future.

Let us dive deeper into finding out how Ballerina leads to an expansion of the world of John Wick.

5 ways we see Ballerina magnifying the world of John Wick, listed

1) The indefinite ending of Ballerina

At the end of the film, Eve comes to know that the Cult has put a reward of a whopping $5 million to murder her. While she is witnessing the performance of Tatiana's ballet dance, Eve gets informed about the reward and exits the theater.

So, as a group of people wanting to execute Eve, the further installments can explore Eve's journey from there onwards. It shall also give us more insight into the journey of Eve and what shape the character takes. Does she survive the Cult, and if so, what strategies does she use to survive and fight? All of these questions heighten the anticipation of Eve's journey even more.

2) The importance of John Wick in Eve's life

In the film, Keanu Reeves appears for a limited screen time, reviving his iconic role of John Wick. In fact, John Wick is the one who acts as a catalyst in Eve achieving her motive by murdering the Chancellor. Both Wick and Eve begin the journey of becoming assassins due to an act of personal vengeance and loss.

In the future developments of Ballerina, even though John Wick met with death in Chapter 4, we shall not expect to witness the character in his physical form. The story of Eve takes place before Chapter 4 ends, but we can still witness glimpses of their relationship in how Eve responds to the death of Wick.

We can expect to experience John Wick's reverence and presence in the form of memory and mourning in the mind of Eve.

3) Eve's family history

Norman Reedus' character in the film, Daniel Pine, we witness that he too walks the same path as Javier had. Pine, too, has a daughter, like Javier had Eve. But unfortunately for Javier, he does not survive the attacks done by The Cult.

Daniel Pine is the son of the Chancellor and is striving his best to get out of the exploitative institution. He endows Eve with the responsibility of keeping his daughter, Ella, safe from the Cultists.

However, Pine ends up getting severely injured by one of the Cultists. He survives the injuries and meets Eve towards the end of the film. So, by looking at the patterns of similarities between Pine and Javier, we can track the origins of Javier's journey as well as his relationship with the Cult.

4) History of Ruska Roma in relation to John Wick

A still from 'Ballerina' | Image via @Youtube/LionsgateMovies

The film gives us a deeper insight into the workings of Ruska Roma. We witness their process behind making what John Wick and Eve eventually become. However, what we do not yet know is the origins of John Wick's association with the Ruska Roma.

Perhaps in the further installments, the makers can shed more light on how John Wick entered the institution of Ruska Roma. We can also witness a more in-depth history of the institution.

5) Eve's next move in the future of Ballerina

Lastly, Eve does successfully extract her revenge as she murders the Chancellor and several members of the Cult. However, as we all know, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. As we already know by now, in the end, the Cult rewards a sum for killing her, so things certainly do not look like a cakewalk for Eve.

In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, helmer Len Wiseman hints at a possible sequel to Ballerina by mentioning:

"She has to now deal with the consequences that John Wick laid out to her, that Winston laid out to her.

"It is a brutal world. You don't walk off into the sunset very easily. And so now Eve's next move is how to deal with the consequences of her actions in this [movie]."