Ian McShane candidly explains John Wick spinoff Ballerina has been delayed to make it ‘better’

Ian McShane has candidly revealed that the delay in releasing the new John Wick spinoff Ballerina is due to “new shoots” intended to make the film “better”.

Ballerina, which stars Ana de Armas as murderous ballerina Rooney opposite Keanu Reeves as legendary assassin Wick, was originally scheduled to arrive in cinemas this summer but has now been given a new release date of 6 June 2025.

The spinoff takes place between the events of John Wick 3 and John Wick 4. It is helmed by Underworld director Len Wiseman, while all previous John Wick films had been directed by former stuntman Chad Stahelski.

McShane, 81, plays Wick’s friend Winston Scott, the enigmatic owner of hitman hideout the Continental Hotel, in the film series.

Appearing on The One Show, McShane said the delay in the film’s release was due not to reshoots, but “new shoots”.

“The new shooting for Ballerina, which is the spinoff with Ana de Armas of the John Wick franchise... you know, it’s like, they’ve got to protect the franchise,” he explained. “It was about a year ago that we did the movie Ballerina. They’ve looked at it, and Chad’s come in, the guy who directed all the John Wick movies, and they want to make it better.”

Television presenter Ant McPartlin, who was also appearing on the show, then mentioned he’d just watched another John Wick spinoff, the television series The Continental.

McShane reacted dismissively towards the show, saying: “Why would I have seen it? They never asked anybody about it. They just went and did it. Both Keanu and I went: ‘Nobody ever asked us about it!’”

McPartlin then jokingly asked whether McShane had been asked about the new television series Sexy Beast, a prequel to Jonathan Glazer’s 2000 crime film which starred McShane alongside Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley.

“No!” responded McShane, laughing and adding: “Leave it alone!”

Last year, Stahelski hit back at criticims of John Wick: Chapter 4’s mammoth three-hour runtime.

“If that’s the critique, we’ll take it,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve ever concerned ourselves, we just watch the movie. I think it’s the length that we feel is the best version of the movie. We’ve tried longer, we’ve tried much shorter. That’s what we feel is a good movie.”

In a four-star review of the film, The Independent’s chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote that the film “commits so nobly to self-seriousness that it borders on camp.”