Chad Stahelski Had to Reshoot Most of ‘Ballerina'

Some scoffed at my previous intel that tackling the troubled production on “Ballerina.” This was a strong source of mine and a new report has proven it to be correct.

If you remember, “Ballerina” had been delayed by a year from June 7, 2024 to June 6, 2025. ‘John Wick’ architect Chad Stahelski then agreed with Lionsgate to oversee production on the film. Supposedly, Stahelski was said to be shadowing “Ballerina” director Len Wiseman on “additional action sequences” during reshoots on the film. However, I had heard far worse.

According to The Wrap, the first cut of “Ballerina,” which was described as a mess, “didn’t pass the muster” with Lionsgate and most of the film had be reshot by Stahelski, entirely from scratch. According to one insider, a “significant portion” of “Ballerina” was reshot in Prague, with Wiseman not present on set.

The “Ballerina” reshoots took two to three months, which might as well be close to an entire movie’s worth of shooting, and according to the trade’s insider, it further delayed development on Stahelski’s “Highlander” reboot which led to Henry Cavill signing up for the lead role in “Voltron.”

“Of course Chad had to clean up someone else’s mess. Remember, this film is basically ‘John Wick 3.5,’” said the insider. “This story happens before ‘John Wick 4’ and after that film, they can’t have a failure in anything ‘Wick’ related.”

In “Ballerina,” Ana De Armas plays an assassin, and Anjelica Huston reprises her role as head of the Ruska Roma crime organization. Ian McShane is back as hotelier Winston. Keanu Reeves has a cameo. It’s also the late Lance Reddick’s final on-screen performance as Charon. The film has had almost no promotional material released so far.

It was recently reported that David Castañeda and Sharon Duncan-Brewster had been added to the cast of “Ballerina.” Yes, they added new characters during these reshoots, that weren’t previously part of the original script.

Ian McShane, who stars in “Ballerina” was recently a guest on BBC’s The One Show and tackled these reshoots. The veteran actor implied that “Ballerina” was just not good enough and that they had to shoot entirely new sequences with another director (Stahelski). According to him, we shouldn’t call them reshoots, they are actually “newshoots.”

Production on “Ballerina” began in November 2022. The film was in post-production by February 2023. I gather Wiseman will be keeping his directing credit in “Ballerina,” even with Stahelski, by all accounts, now “ghost directing” it. John Wick fans expect a certain type of choreographed action and maybe Wiseman just couldn’t deliver that.