Editorial Staff
Hot on the heels of Friday’s acquisition news regarding Starz’s pick-up of the “John Wick” TV series, Slashfilm has gathered more details on “The Continental”, including the return of a popular face from the film.
With the series being set at The Continental, a hotel chain for assassins, one imagines that Ian McShane’s Winston – who serves as manager of the place – might make an appearance.
“There are certainly conversations about having Ian McShane back”, Starz’s President of Original Programming Carmi Zlotnick tells the site. “The good part is we have some sort of insight into his schedule because of our involvement in American Gods. We’re in conversations with Ian.”
The first season would span eight hour long episodes, with the main character entering the assassin business at the same time of the events of the films.
“He won’t be an assassin at the very beginning. I don’t want to give too much about the story away, but it’s somebody who is new to the world. His origin story, when you go back to the beginning, unknown to him, has some ties to the world.
I think the story will be told present day, but a lot of the present day drama will be informed by what happened in the past. I think the timeline for this show runs parallel with the timelines of the movies. So they’re contemporaneous but they’re separate. These are separate characters, separate stories. It’s set in the John Wick world.
Usually we think about eight episodes for a first season. Usually trying to do more can be a bridge too far, but we’re discussing it. I think it’s always got to fit the needs of the story as well. Yeah, this is an action show. [Director] Chad [Stahelski]’s involved, we expect that whole gun fu aspect to it. That’s the nature of the franchise.”
