John Wick has a new target in latest Ballerina trailer

Ana de Armas stars as an assassin in training in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.

Lionsgate dropped a new trailer for Ballerina—or, as the studio is now calling it, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, because what every film needs is a needlessly clunky title. There's nothing clunky about this new trailer, however: It's the stylized, action-packed dose of pure adrenaline one would expect from the franchise, and it ends with Ana de Armas' titular ballerina facing off against none other than John Wick himself (Keanu Reeves).

(Spoilers for 2019's John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum.)

Chronologically, Ballerina takes place during the events of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. As previously reported, Parabellum found Wick declared excommunicado from the High Table for killing crime lord Santino D'Antonio on the grounds of the Continental. On the run with a bounty on his head, he makes his way to the headquarters of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, led by the Director (Anjelica Huston). That's where we learned Wick was originally named Jardani Jovonovich and trained as an assassin with the syndicate. The Director also trains young girls to be ballerina-assassins, and one young ballerina (played by Unity Phelan) is shown rehearsing in the scene. That dancer, Eve Macarro, is the main character in Ballerina, now played by de Armas.

Huston returns as the Director, Ian McShane is back as Winston, and Lance Reddick makes one final (posthumous) appearance as the Continental concierge, Charon. New cast members include Gabriel Byrne as main villain the Chancellor, who turns an entire town against Eve; Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Nogi, Eve's mentor; Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine; and Catalina Sandino Moreno and David Castaneda in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

The first trailer dropped last September and focused heavily on Eve's backstory. We saw Winston recruiting a young orphaned Eve with some scenes of her learning boxing, martial arts, and gun and knife skills. She then started looking for her father's killer and naturally encountered some opposition, requiring her to fight a lot of nasty people with a flamethrower. Finally, she came face to face, albeit briefly, with Wick.

Wick gets a lot more screen time in this latest trailer. It opens with a voiceover by Eve's mentor, Nogi. "In Slavic mythology, the Kikimora is a spirit that exists in the shadows," Nogi says. "To those with darkness in their hearts, she can be vengeful. But to the innocent, she can be a protector. It's up to you to choose." Eve is inclined to choose vengeance and checks into the Continental looking for the tribe whose members bear a telltale mark on their forearms. Winston warns her of the danger: "Needing to know is what got us cast out of the Garden of Eden. Are you prepared to be cast out again, Eve?" She's more than prepared and stocks up on weapons to go "hunting" for "large game."

But she has walked into something much larger than anticipated. Her effectiveness with the flamethrower is seen by the Chancellor as a declaration of war, so the Director sends Wick to "solve the problem." Is Eve any match for the Baba Yaga?

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina hits theaters on June 6, 2025.