Warning! Major spoilers ahead for Ballerina.From the World of John Wick: Ballerinadirector Len Wiseman shares his theory about who put the contract on Ana de Armas' Eve Macarro at the end of the movie. The latest installment in theJohn Wickfranchise follows Eve as she seeks for revenge for the murder of her father. TheBallerinaendingsees Eve accomplish her mission, killing the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) in Hallstatt, but she’s not out of the woods yet. Just before the credits roll, Eve sees on her phone that there’s a large contract on her head, but it’s not clear who placed the hit.
In a recent interview withEW, Wiseman comments on this ambiguousBallerinaending, revealing that he thinks a specific figure from Eve’s past could be responsible for the contract. According to the director, an early draft of the script had Eve interacting more with her Cultist mother, who, in the movie, is revealed to have died before the events of the main story. Wiseman explains thatif Eve’s mother is alive, she could have placed the hit after seeing the devastation in Hallstatt and learning of Lena’s (Catalina Sandino Moreno) death. Check out his comment below:
“At one point I had [in the script] that she meets her mother, and we never got there. We were maybe going to shoot the scene, but that’s always something that we hear, her mother’s dead, but in this world, you never know who’s really dead. There was an element of, when Eve does get the contract on her at the end, we don’t necessarily know for sure who put that contract on her. And if that path led to that, maybe her own mother [put the hit on her]. That would be brutal.
[…]
“Her mother still will need to return to that village and see it decimated, and her daughter has been killed. So the ramifications can come in many different forms.”
Though audiences don’t get to meet Eve’s mother in the film, Wiseman has hopes that his “full fantasy wish” for this storyline will eventually come to fruition.
What This Means For Ballerina
Will The John Wick Spinoff Get A Sequel?
It’s too early to say whetherBallerina 2will happen, but the ending to the first film definitely leaves the door open for more story with Eve. Wiseman, in a separate interview withUSA Today, reveals thatthe bounty of Eve’s head at the end of the movie was actually “a Keanu [Reeves] idea,”and one that fits into “the spirit of the consequences behind this world.” He goes on to say that, though “it’sambiguous who put that contract out,” he has “fun, really dark ideas,” about who it is, further speaking to his plans for Eve’s mother.
The early response to theJohn Wickspinoff bodes well for a sequel. In herBallerinareviewforScreenRant, Rachel Labonte awards the film a lukewarm six out of 10, but the film does hold a more respectable 76% onRotten Tomatoes.The Popcornmeter score, however, is a stunning 94%, making it the highest-ratedJohn Wickmovie yet with audiences. It will be box office that determines whether Eve’s story continues, but the Popcornmeter score could suggest strong legs in the weeks ahead.
John Wick: Chapter 4(2023)was the previous franchise winner in terms of Popcornmeter scores, holding a 93%. ThoughBallerinais currently in the lead, the spinoff’s scores could fluctuate over the coming weeks.
Our Take On Wiseman’s Ballerina 2 Tease
How Eve’s Mother Could Upgrade The Sequel
A major part of theJohn Wicksequelsis that Reeves' character is constantly fending off assassins as the bounty on his head increases. TheBallerinaending tees Eve up for a similar predicament, butthe fact that her own mother may have been the one to place the bounty could open the door for a more emotional story moving forward. This is not a franchise that spends too much time on emotion, butBallerina 2now has a chance to go deeper into a key Eve relationship.
If a sequel can deliver the same high-octane action while also offering up a more compelling, human story at the center, it has the potential to be one of the bestJohn Wickmovies yet. Though the possibility exists for Eve and her mother to make peace with each other,previous entries in the franchise have proven that happy endings are a rarity in this universe. It remains to be seen whether Wiseman will get to bring hisBallerinafantasy to life, but there evidently could be a lot more to Eve’s story.
