GUN LOBBY

THE CONTINENTAL: FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK Director Albert Hughes and star Colin Woodell on their TV prequel’s killer premise…

Mel Gibson plays the villainous Cormac

John Wick spin-off series The Continental spotlights the hotel, a haven for hitmen, from the movie franchise. A prequel to the Keanu Reeves actioners, the show rewinds to the 1970s to tell the story of Winston Scott – played by Ian McShane in the films, Colin Woodell here – and how he took charge of the high-end hostelry. Rest assured, there’s more to this ‘three-part event’ than one man’s rise to hotel manager. There’s Mel Gibson’s scenerychewing villain Cormac for starters, the man running the New York Continental.

‘Cormac’s a little janky around the edges; he doesn’t have it all together; his operation’s a little loosey-goosey,’ smiles director Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli), who directs two episodes while Charlotte Brändström (The Rings of Power) directs the other.

In the series, the Continental isn’t the bastion of restraint and decorum it at least purports to be in the movies: there’s a red-light rule which mandates killing on hotel grounds, when Cormac deems it necessary. He’s ‘really amoral’, says Hughes. Woodell calls him a ‘vicious, horrible human being’.

Winston, meanwhile, differs from the man of the movies. Fresh from his formative years in London, he’s trying to fit back into the Brooklyn he comes from. Says Woodell, ‘At this time in the story, he’s fighting for the power.’ Hughes adds, ‘He’s like a baby rattlesnake. He doesn’t truly yet know how to use his venom.’

Two asks from the John Wick producers, says Hughes, were for The Continental to be ‘more grounded and gritty, and [for it to explore] more of the mythology’. That includes probing the Bowery and the associated network of underworld spies presided over by Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King in the movies. The series also tells how Winston forged his relationship with loyal concierge Charon (the late, great Lance Reddick in the films, and played here by Ayomide Adegun), and introduces a younger Uncle Charlie (Peter Greene), who fans will know as the cleaner from the films (played by David Patrick Kelly).

‘Winston [here] is like a baby rattlesnake. He doesn’t truly yet know how to use his venom’

ALBERT HUGHES

But there are new characters (besides Cormac) to get to know, too. There’s cop Mayhew (Jeremy Bobb) and his ‘badass’ subordinate, K.D. (Mishel Prada). Winston’s hotel-heist team includes siblings Miles (Hubert Point-Du Jour) and Lou (Jessica Allain). And then there’s Winston’s estranged brother, Frankie, played by Ben Robson. ‘He had big shoes to fill – he was like the Keanu of our shoot, and had to train his ass off!’ laughs Woodell.

But here’s the big question: does the action live up to the gold standard set by John Wick: Chapter 4?

‘I think it’s unfair to put that on the television series,’ says Hughes, who suggests story and characters are paramount. He does reference one enticing action set-piece, however: a 57-minute-long hotel takeover sequence in episode three. The Continental also serves a banging 1970s soundtrack. ‘Even if you don’t like the action, and if you don’t like the show, and you don’t follow the story from the Wick films,’ says Woodell, ‘you’re gonna want to stay for the music, at least!’

THE CONTINENTAL: FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK WILL PREMIERE ON PRIME VIDEO IN SEPTEMBER.