Showrunners open up about tracing the origins of the The Continental

Keanu Reeves starrer John Wick series was an unforeseen revolution in global cinema, with the franchise breaking multiple records with each subsequent release. As of 2023, the John Wick films have collected over one billion dollars at the global box office, ranking it amongst the highest earning franchises of the world. Dwelling on the popularity of the elements in the John Wick, a brand new prequel is all set to release exclusively on Prime Video in India and worldwide on September 22.

The three-part series will explore the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins ‘The Continental’, a centerpiece of the John Wick universe, through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott (played by Colin Woodell), as he’s dragged into the Hell-scape of 1970’s New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Opening up about the inception of this ambitious prequel, showrunner Kirk Ward gives insights on how he went about creating a world highlighting the origins of the global blockbuster.

Ward says he set the balls of the franchise rolling by, “bringing on a filmmaker like Albert Hughes who has had a complete take of what this should be, and Chad Stahelski who gave him the keys to the kingdom and said, make this your own. But I think what the fans are really going to like is the characters that we delve into, and the new characters we introduce. The fact that The Continental itself is essentially the main character of our show.”

He further expanded on why they chose Winston’s story to venture into the past, “It really comes down to one line in the first John Wick movie when Winston says, ‘I've been running this hotel for 40 years.’ And so it was one of those a-ha moments where we went, ‘Wait a minute, what if we go back to the beginning? What if we set this in a time far away from John Wick, but also start to plant the seeds of how John Wick comes into this universe.’ And the thing about Winston is in the movies, we don't know much about him. He's the only one that calls John Wick, “Jonathan.” And when the hotel is taken over in John Wick 3, he locks himself in a safe and he's got his drink and he sits there and he's the commander in chief of this sentient being, this Continental.”

The Continental: From the World of John Wick is produced by Lionsgate Television and stars Colin Woodell, Mel Gibson, Michelle Prada, Ben Robson, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Nhung Kate, Jessica Allain, Ayomide Adegun, Jeremy Bobb and Peter Greene in pivotal roles. The highly anticipated three part mini-series will release with the first part exclusively on Prime Video in India in English with Hindi dubs on September 22, with weekly releases every Friday.