Summary
- The Continental will serve as a prequel to the John Wick movies, focusing on Winston Scott and his journey to becoming the proprietor of New York’s Continental Hotel.
- The series will slow down and delve deeper into the world of John Wick, taking the time to explain and explore the ideas, notions, and characters that were introduced in the movies.
- The Continental will shed new light on the history and origins of the Continental Hotel, including the friendship between Winston and Charon, as well as the conflicts and different managers that came before Winston’s tenure.
The Continental executive producer Basil Iwanyk teases how the series will dig into the characters, like Winston Scott, and the world of John Wick first introduced in the movies. The Continental is decades before the events of the John Wick movies and focuses on Winston Scott, specifically how he became the proprietor of New York’s Continental Hotel. The Continental is instrumental in the world of John Wick, a safe hotel for assassins where no business is allowed to take place on the premises.
Screen Rant was able to attend a press event for The Continental, where Iwanyk shared why fans need to check out the new John Wick prequel series. He compared it to Batman Begins, since digs into Winston Scott’s past. He also teased how The Continental will slow down and explore the world introduced in the four movies. Check out Iwanyk’s full quote below:
Basil Iwanyk: I would say it’s like The Batman Begins of the John Wick world and Winston. It finally starts explaining all the insanity that’s been presented in these four movies. You gotta remember these four movies takes place over like six months. The first three take place over like three weeks, easy. They’re chased and people are being chased. So we actually slow down and explain and dig deeper of all these ideas, notions, characters that we kind of fly through in the movies.
How The Continental Can Expand Upon The World Of John Wick & Winston Scott
John Wick stands out from other action franchises in part because of the complicated world-building of The High Table throughout all four movies. The first movie introduces The Continental as a safe haven for assassins and the rules that guests must follow. However, much of how it works and came to be remains a mystery, as does the history of John Wick’s ally and the manager of the New York branch of the Continental, Winston Scott.
Winston and the Continental Hotel are entwined in the John Wick movies, but The Continental will show how this came to be. In the series, Winston is not yet the hotel’s proprietor, but it will explore how he came to hold this position and became the connected power broker that he is in the movies. The prequel will also dig further into Winston’s history before the Continental or the High Table were even on his radar.
The Continental will show the origins of the friendship and trust between Winston and Charon, his right-hand man, in the John Wick movies. This dynamic is a cornerstone of the New York Continental, with Charon’s unquestionable loyalty to Winston as opposed to the High Table. The series will also show a vastly different Continental run by the manager before Winston, Cormac, in the midst of many conflicts in the 1970s. The Continental will shed new light on many aspects of the world of John Wick, from the hotel itself to the people who have run it for the entirety of the film franchise.
The Continental debuts on Peacock on September 20.
