LionsgateThe John Wick movies are chock-full of colorful characters who can cross swords (or guns, or fists, or any manner of weaponry) with Keanu Reeves’ titular assassin. Many of these characters are beloved enough to earn their own spinoff — from Ian McShane’s Winston Scott, whose younger self stars in the prequel series The Continental, to Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine, who will be the next to get his own feature film. But the first character to get their own spinoff movie had never appeared in a John Wick movie before — and that was the first big puzzle for Ballerina director Len Wiseman.“I think the challenge was how to introduce the character from the beginning that we haven't seen,” Wiseman tells Inverse. “It helps to get to know even what her past was and how she went through training. That was the biggest difference of a character that was one of the only characters that, in the beginning of the film, does not start as an assassin.”A Different Kind of AssassinAna de Armas and director Len Wiseman on the set of Ballerina. | LionsgateAna de Armas stars in the spinoff From the World of John Wick: Ballerina as Eve Macarro, a ballerina assassin who is raised under the Ruska Roma, an assassin syndicate run by the Director (Angelica Huston). After her father is murdered by a cult led by Gabriel Byrne’s Chancellor, Eve swears revenge on the men who stole her life — even if it means disobeying the Director’s direct orders and risking banishment from the Ruska Roma.De Armas takes on the role of the nameless ballerina assassin who was first teased in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (then played by professional ballerina Unity Phelan). Ballerina fleshes out her character, introducing her from childhood when she witnesses her father murdered in front of her, and following Eve as she chooses the life of an assassin and becomes the rising star of the Ruska Roma.“There's a drive and a character that's wanting to become an assassin, which is a fascinating question,” Wiseman says. “There's a lot of assassin-based movies [that] are either legends that we have known about, [or of] a character that's trying to get out of that life. But not often do you see a character that wants to get in.”Eve and John Wick meet. | LionsgateIn a sense, Eve is kind of the anti-John Wick — a rising assassin who hasn’t yet gained the kind of reputation that Wick has, and is desperately trying to join the world that Wick is trying to escape. Another key difference: she’s a small, 5’ 6” woman, who will most always have a disadvantage against her opponents. For Wiseman, this was an important facet for him and de Armas to play into. “In early conversations I was having with Anna, I said, ‘It might be a weird reference, but this is essentially Rambo First Blood … in that it's more based off of survival,” Wiseman says.“She's having to make up as she goes and does have to be more clever.”Eve knows the disadvantage she’s working with so, like Rambo, collects as many weapons as she can to survive. Guns? Ammo? Ice skates? Anything that can be used as a weapon becomes part of Eve’s arsenal. It’s what makes Ballerina such a different watch than a John Wick movie — instead of watching John Wick bulldoze his way through dozens of assassins, you watch Eve have to outsmart and outmaneuver her attackers. “She's having to make up as she goes and does have to be more clever,” Wiseman says. “She's going up against assassins that are much bigger than she is and we wanted to really play into that reality.”And in embarking on her revenge quest, Eve ends up running into many of the mainstays of the John Wick world, including Wick’s close ally and The Continental owner, Winston Scott (McShane). Winston ends up being a mentor of sorts to Eve, taking her under his wing as a child, and sending her on the path to the Ruska Roma. It was a different dynamic for McShane than his old, weary dynamic with Reeves’ Wick, and one that he found refreshing to play.Winston Scott and Eve reunite. | Lionsgate“Her personality, her gravitas in the film, and her fighting skills, are all shown to excess,” McShane tells Inverse. “And Winston is there, because known her since she was a little girl … So, they have a closeness separated by many years, but there's an instinct that she trusts him, and he's a great admirer of her.”Is Winston more of an admirer of Eve than he is of John Wick? McShane plays coy, but jokes, “Sorry, Keanu, you're no longer my favorite. Ana's my favorite now.”The Reshoot QuestionAna de Armas’ Eve uses ice skates as a weapon. | LionsgateThough Ana de Armas proves that a John Wick spinoff can survive without John Wick, the involvement of John Wick director Chad Stahelski in the reshoots for Ballerina left fans with another lingering question: Can the franchise survive without Stahelski? Wiseman finally puts to bed rumors about the reshoots, telling Inverse: “The studio saw the film, really loved what it was and gave us more money to do some sequences that were also cut out of the script.”As for Stahelski’s involvement, it came down to a matter of scheduling. Wiseman says Stahelski was wrapping up John Wick: Chapter 4 at the time of Ballerina’s filming, so “I asked if he would do some of the second unit to fit into our schedule.”“It's all about schedule and divvying up the time to get as much as we possibly could about that,” Wiseman adds. “So it was in tandem of how we get the most out of the schedule and the time that we have.”Sequels and John Wick 5Will we see more John Wick? Or will Eve and John Wick cross paths again? | LionsgateSo now that Ballerina’s story is done and ready to catch up with the events of John Wick: Chapter 4, could we see more of Ana de Armas’ Eve? “Absolutely,” Wiseman says. “We had developed so much about that character and the layers to it. I would love to peel through them and continue, but it's really how it's received by the audience.”While Wiseman and de Armas are waiting to see how Ballerina will be received, the John Wick universe has a robust future ahead, with multiple TV spinoffs, animated shows, and feature films in the works. And, of course, there’s the matter of John Wick 5. McShane didn’t have any updates on the recently announced film, though he does also suggest, “They announced that to keep the fans on their toes.”“It's up to Keanu. If Keanu wants to do a number five, there'll be a number five.”McShane, for the record, says he would happily return in a fifth John Wick installment “because I don't have to climb 50,000 steps and fight 550,000 people,” McShane says dryly, calling himself “the Wick whisperer.”“Who knows?” McShane continues. “It's up to Keanu. If Keanu wants to do a number five, there'll be a number five. If he doesn't, there won't be.”From the World of John Wick: Ballerina opens in theaters June 6.