Summary
- The Continental, the John Wick prequel series, has impressed skeptics with its stunning action choreography, honoring the franchise's signature style.
- The cast of The Continental has put in extensive training to bring the fight scenes to life, as evident in the trailers.
- The series incorporates elements from the John Wick franchise, other action films like Atomic Blonde, and '70s martial arts movies, creating unique and captivating fight choreography.
When the John Wick prequel series, The Continental, was first announced, there was initially a lot of skepticism, as there almost always is with spin-offs nowadays. Some saw the spin-off as a blatant cash grab, while many presumed that the smaller budgets allocated to series over movies would hamper the quality of the show's action, possibly the most important aspect of any John Wick product. However, each trailer has only improved on the last in showcasing the stunning action choreography that will be prevalent throughout the series.
Set nearly 40 years before the first John Wick film, The Continental is set in New York during the 1970s and tells the story of how Winston (previously played by Ian McShane, now portrayed by Colin Woodell) rose to power and became the manager of the New York branch of the Continental hotel. As well as providing more depth to one of the franchise's more undervalued characters, The Continental, as shown in its trailers, is set on honoring the unique action choreography and cinematography that helped put the John Wick franchise on the map.
The Continental's Fight Choreography Is Beautiful
One of the biggest proponents that has contributed to the runaway success of the John Wick franchise is the level of dedication series star Keanu Reeves put into his training, becoming dangerously proficient at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, and weapons work to bring the choreography to life. While there haven't been any behind-the-scenes reveals from the cast of The Continental discussing their grueling training regimens, the trailers feature more than enough clips from action scenes to prove that the cast has put their time in on the mats and at gun ranges.
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One of the hardest-hitting clips shown in the newest trailer features Winston's brother Frankie, played by Ben Robson, taking on armed henchmen in a tight spiraling staircase. This gun-heavy action scene not only draws inspiration from iconic scenes within the John Wick franchise – like the home invasion from the first movie and the assault on Osaka from John Wick 4 – but also from other action films that took a fresh spin on John Wick's style, most notably in this case Atomic Blonde.
This external influence is unsurprising, considering David Leitch, who co-directed the first John Wick and then went on to direct Atomic Blonde, is serving as an executive producer for The Continental alongside ongoing John Wick director Chad Stahelski.
As well as drawing queues from the John Wick franchise and its successors, The Continental also incorporates stylistic elements from '70s martial arts movies into its fight choreography. Set to Earth, Wind & Fire's iconic Shining Star, some action scenes within the trailers feature choreography inspired by films like Enter the Dragon and even pro-wrestling, which began to pick up in popularity in the 70s before booming in the 80s.
A standout moment from the trailers sees Jessica Alain fending off multiple attackers on top of a New York yellow cab. The sequence features tight hand-to-hand choreography before she flips one attacker over her shoulder and drop-kicks the other, leading them to both hit the floor simultaneously.
It's not just fight choreography that the John Wick franchise is famous for, as the series has long incorporated car stunts into its action-fueled machismo aesthetic, and The Continental appears to be doing the same. Alongside the aforementioned fight on top of a cab, the trailers are filled with vehicular mayhem, including shootout chases and multiple car-flipping crashes. On top of this, the iconic 1969 Ford Mustang, which John Wick drove throughout the quadrilogy, makes multiple appearances across various promotional materials.
The Continental Also Nails the Beautiful Cinematography and Composition
What makes the John Wick franchise unique in the action genre isn't just its stunt choreography but also how it is shot and edited. As a result of Reeve's intense dedication to training for the role, Chad Stahelski was able to shoot every action scene in gorgeous wide shots, with minimal cuts in editing, to fully showcase the beautiful choreography and immerse audiences by showing that it was Reeves performing most of the stunts.
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While the trailers for The Continental do feature frequent choppy editing, as is common with most modern trailers, the clips featuring action scenes do appear to show the action similarly framed and composed to match the style of the original films. The fights shown in the previously mentioned stairway scene and the several car chases featured in the trailers utilize similar wide shots to clearly display the full brevity of the choreography and stunt work. Even the stunts that appear to feature some cuts, like the yellow taxi fight, seem to use them as a stylistic enhancement to the choreography rather than to hide any shortcomings in the fight sequence – as many modern action films have come to do.
Despite being set nearly 40 years before the first movie in the franchise and focusing on a (mostly) different cast of characters, The Continental still seems to understand and respect what makes the John Wick franchise so critically acclaimed and popular and incorporates these elements into the fight scenes it has teased audiences with.
