Ana de Armas has been cast in Ballerina, officially entering the cinematic universe begun with the John Wick series.

Lionsgate announced the casting during its CinemaCon presentation, reported ComicBook.com. The studio also confirmed that Len Wiseman would direct from a script by Shay Hatten. Production will reportedly begin this summer on the upcoming spinoff film, which follows de Armas' titular character, a young female assassin seeking revenge against the people who murdered her family.

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Ballerina was first announced in July 2017 after Lionsgate won a bidding war for the female-led led action script. At the time, the film was described as "being in the vein of La Femme Nikita...but with a more pulpy, hyper-stylized bent a la Quentin Tarantino or Matthew Vaughn." The studio purchased the script with an eye towards incorporating the script's characters and world into its popular John Wick series as the franchise's first spinoff film.

The first direct ties to Ballerina were seen in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which introduced "The Director" (played by Anjelica Houston). The head of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, The Director oversees a program in New York that trains young male wrestlers to be assassins and young ballet dancers to be femme fatales. The scene was included in John Wick Chapter 3 to help set up the upcoming spinoff, but it is unknown if Houston will be returning as The Director respectively in Ballerina.

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Wiseman signed on to direct in October 2019, while it was rumored that de Armas was being circled for the lead role in October 2021. The actor has been slowly building up an impressive resume since breaking into English-language films with 2015's Knock Knock. She made a memorable appearance as Paloma in No Time to Die, Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond, and can also be seen on Netflix in 2022's The Gray Man.

The John Wick universe will continue to expand beyond Ballerina. Lionsgate Television and Starz are working on the limited series The Continental, which will premiere over three nights and focus on a young Winston Scott decades before the events of the first John Wick. Colin Woodell has been cast to play Scott, replacing Ian McShane from the films. John Wick: Chapter 4 will open in hit theaters on May 27, 2022, and a fifth film is in development.

Ballerina does not yet have a release date.

Source: ComicBook.com