The Continental picked the right guy to define its retro John Wick action

polygon.com:

Making a TV spinoff of the most influential action franchise of the century is a daunting task.

There’s the delicate balance of fan expectations from previous entries with the desire to see something new. And then there’s the massive difference between the size of most TV productions and the size of blockbuster action movies.

That’s something The Continental action director Larnell Stovall was more than up for as he approached bringing the world of John Wick to the new three-episode Peacock miniseries. When speaking to Polygon about the team’s approach to the show’s thrilling action sequences, he stressed the fine line of homage and originality, and how one has to follow the other.

“You have to respect the filming style,” Stovall says. “John Wick is known for wider shots where you can truly see the actors. It’s not lit too dark, where you can’t make out what’s happening.”

That respect is evident from the very first moments of The Continental. While the ’70s setting brings a new kind of sleaze to the series, the action will be familiar to anyone who’s caught a John Wick film before. There’s a party at the titular hotel, where loud music provides unknowing cover for a heist. As you might expect, the heist goes sideways and every resident of the assassin hotel pulls out their respective guns. Suddenly, in the course of just one set-piece, The Continental cements itself as part of the John Wick universe.

We follow a character, Wick-like in both appearance and mannerisms, who steals something from The Continental’s vault, then fights his way into a stairwell, with bullets flying everywhere. The entire sequence is a tightly choreographed showcase of the gun-fu the series is known for, but with a bit of ’70s flair to mix