The Big Picture The Continental filmmakers discuss continuing the John Wick legacy via a period prequel series. The director and stunt coordinator break down one of the show’s most impressive fight scenes. The production designer explains how the look of The Continental hotel differs in the series.
When John Wick 4 hit theaters this past spring, it put a definitive pin in one part of the saga. However, with the upcoming Ana de Armas-led Ballerina and the three-night TV event The Continental heading to screens soon, the world of John Wick is only growing bigger. At San Diego Comic-Con, Collider’s editor-in-chief Steve Weintraub moderated The Continental’s panel, which also premiered some exclusive footage, making the wait for the September premiere feel even longer.

In this interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, executive producer Marshall Persinger, EP and director Albert Hughes, stunt coordinator Larnell Stovell, editor Ron Rosen and production designer Drew Boughton talk about the biggest challenges in continuing the world of John Wick in the new series. They also talk about pulling off Episode 1’s impressive oner, and why this production felt so different.

For more with the crew behind the John Wick spin-off, check out Perri’s full interview above, or the transcript below:

PERRI NEMIROFF: I am very curious to hear about finding the right two directors to lead this project because the film franchise is so heavily defined by Chad [Stahelski]’s style. What was it like finding two leaders that would continue that style, but also make the show uniquely their own as well?

MARSHALL PERSINGER: Well, that is a great question, but it would be for Thunder Road and Lionsgate because I came on because Albert asked me to come on.

ALBERT HUGHES: Which is a great answer, Marshall, because I needed help. [Laughs] What happened was they approached me, it was Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, the producers of the film series, that did a Zoom with me, and at first I didn’t think I would be interested, and then I started thinking about things like Tony Gilroy on Andor, and Jon Favreau on The Mandalorian and Noah Hawley on Fargo and I go, “Oh, you can make something in a sandbox that already exists.” And that it took place in the seventies. So I go, “this can be fun.”

And then when I got on the ground, got introduced to all these guys, but I had to bring Marshall in because I needed desperate help because it’s a very complex show as you can see, especially when you’re dealing with a period piece.

Image via Peacock

I’ll flip that idea around so you can sing Marshall’s praises. You said you brought her in because you needed her. What is it about her as a producer and collaborator that you appreciate and thought would serve your work well here?

HUGHES: Good question. We called her “the glue,” me and the showrunner Kirk Ward who was my partner in crime. She had her tentacles in every department. There are certain scenes that I look at, I remember telling her last year, I go, “You produced every element in that scene.” And you know the one scene I’m talking about. There’s a monkey in it, there’s a horse in it, there’s aerialists in it. Every element of that scene she diligently went to town working hard on, right? So that’s her specialty, is a nonstop going hard.

Then you have Larnell, our stunt coordinator, our action unit director who comes from the 87eleven world with Chad and David [Leitch], and knows that world, and knows those guys very well, and knows their style … And then the genius Ron Rosen who I’ve worked with before is not one of the best editors I’ve ever worked with. He is the best editor I’ve ever worked with, and he’s a real genre movie freak, and he loves John Wick. So that’s great. Then Drew Boughton, my production designer who just did amazing things that blew us all away. There’s things you’ve seen in Episode 3 that show up at the end that the crew just shut down and were in silence about for 15 minutes.

So I got very lucky to have all these people because they say it takes a village, but sometimes the village is messed up. It doesn’t work out. I got lucky.

Marshall, you get brought in to be the glue and have your hands in every element of this production. Is there a single thing in the script that made you think, “I’m gonna have my work cut out for me here. It’s gonna be hard to pull this off, but we’ll do it?”

PERSINGER: I will now talk about Albert. [Laughs] The whole reason that you wanna work with Albert is that he loves to challenge himself, and then therefore that challenges everybody who works on it. So basically everything has to be done in the way that the movies were done in the seventies. That was great filmmaking, and he is a wonderful filmmaker. He’s been doing it since he was 12 years old.

Even though it’s hard every day, it makes it fun and challenging. And what would be the hardest one? What do you think? The helicopter?

HUGHES: That monkey, Marshall!

PERSINGER: The monkey, there should be a documentary on getting the monkey in the opening sequence where Frankie goes to introduce himself to Cormac.

I would watch that documentary happily.

Albert and Larnell, I’m gonna throw this question to you to get at some specifics here, and I feel bad asking this because it’s kind of asking you to play favorites with your characters. Going into filming this show, which character were you most excited to capture? But then, on the other hand, which character wound up being more creatively fulfilling to work with than you ever could have imagined?

HUGHES: Well, that’s actually a really original question, and I don’t even have an answer for it. I was surprised by what he did with certain people that we thought maybe wouldn’t get there. And then by the second episode, there was a really amazing fight in an El Camino by the wonderful actress Jess Allain. Because she was a little tentative, and she hurt a stuntman one day. She was really emotional about it, and they were telling her like, “No, no, this happens all the time.” So I was a little worried, but by the time we got to the El Camino, I’m like, whoa! And then we have to give them the challenge of something that Kirk Ward and I always wanted, when everybody says this thing, an analogy, “It was like watching a fight in a phone booth.” Larnell, we need a fight in a phone booth.

LARNELL STOVALL: Favorites, I’m gonna say expectation-wise a lot of pressure was placed on Frankie. He starts us off. He makes sure you tune in, gets you excited, gives you a taste of what’s to come. Surprisingly? I’m gonna say the twins probably were my favorites

HUGHES: Mine too! You helped me.

STOVALL: The twins were my favorites because as much as they were silent, their actions and every little thing Albert captured spoke loudly, so that added pressure to make sure that there was some payoff when it was time for them to be physical with anybody. And they went above and beyond with these small things that will stand out.

Larnell, I’m going to throw another compound question your way right now because there are so many hugely ambitious fight scenes in this. Going into filming, which did you think would be most challenging, and then ultimately, was it the most challenging or did something else catch you by surprise?

HUGHES: Before you start, you know what was shocking to me? You thought one was the crown jewel and it ended up being another one that people thought was the crown jewel, which was interesting to me, but I’m not gonna say which is which. You know what I’m talking about though, right?

STOVALL: Yes. Yes. Night three because there was a challenge of out-topping yourself and not overstaying your welcome in two different sequences. But the characters, their fights were so different, it was hard to compare, but you have no choice but to compare because they happen back to back. But the way we filmed it, there was the pressure because I feel like in any fight sequence, your finale fight can determine how people feel overall on what they’ve witnessed throughout the whole series because you’re gonna have these feel-good feelings about what you just saw. Was that a payoff and was it worth my time? And I think where that fight ended up, the last fight, I don’t wanna spoil anything, but I think we accomplished our mission because that was a huge relief off our shoulders once we saw certain people get down.

HUGHES: You’re talking about the two females?

STOVALL: Yes.

HUGHES: Well, what’s interesting about that is me and him would always have a conversation about the thing he said, overstaying your welcome. He did the first edit of the fight sequence, Ron Rosen. I maybe touched two frames in that. It hasn’t changed since his edit.

Drew, I gotta give him credit for being in a meeting one day and fighting for the rooftop build. Because every movie or TV show has budgetary problems. “We gotta cut this, we gotta cut that.” Whether you have $200 million or $5 million, there’s always cuts, and he just put his hand up one day and he was like, “We have to do the rooftop. We have to do the rooftop.” And I was so happy you did it because by that time Kirk Ward and I were beat down and we kind of were throwing the towel in. So had you not built that rooftop …

PERSINGER: But that’s also because everyone trusts him so much because he would always deliver on budget, everything. And so if Drew said, I need this, you were gonna get it for him.

Ron, I want to talk about a very specific fight scene that we see at the beginning of night one. It’s the oner in the stairwell. I’m so curious to hear about something like that from your perspective. When you read a script and know a fight scene is captured in a oner like that, what are some of your top priorities as an editor that you know you need to convey to the team on set to make sure you could pull that off?

RON ROSEN: So much of this has been worked out before I’ve ever been involved with the project. I came to this project, like everyone else, as a fan of the John Wick movies. Saw them all in the theater the first time, watched them again at home repeatedly.

That staircase, yes, there was stunt viz and they had worked it out on video with stunt performers beforehand, but seeing the dailies coming in that day and seeing the skills of the actor who plays Frankie, it blew me away. I was so impressed and so excited to get my hands on material like that. But you know who wasn’t happy? I was cutting at home, my dogs would love to sleep on the couch next to me. They got wind of what I was doing with that scene. They fled that room and they never came back for a year and a half. [Laughs]

HUGHES: And he also hurt my feelings early on in the edit. I go, “What’s your favorite scene in Episode 1?” He was like “The staircase fight.” I go, “That’s Larnell. That ain’t even me!” [Laughs]

ROSEN: From the mind of Albert Hughes. Everything, actually.

It’s probably one of the most memorable fight scenes I’ve ever seen. I’m obsessed with oners. I just love that format and how it can enhance an action set piece, and your actors’ skill level in that — it just feels so visceral. It’s very impressive.

HUGHES: From Collider, that’s a great compliment!

PERSINGER: It is a great compliment. And that’s the dreamy Ben Robson who now can be a stunt person as well as an actor, which was his goal, from working on the show and working with Larnell.

I could see that. I wanna stick with that scene for one more question for you, Ron, because the other thing I’m curious about when you’re editing a oner is figuring out when to break the oner format and make perceptible cuts. How did you pinpoint the right spot to do that in?

ROSEN: Well, there are a lot of invisible cuts in that sequence, so it looks like more of a oner than it really is. And they did have to shoot it piecemeal just for safety’s sake. Performers can only do so much before it gets dangerous. They can’t ad-lib, all that. It was so well-designed and that came from these two guys right here.

HUGHES: But also it’s a very deceptive oner. Let’s say the sequence is 100%, 60% of it’s a oner. Then it starts breaking off into more traditional little sequence oners, basically. The funny part about that sequence is in the struggle we would always have creatively, a good struggle was — and this is what 87eleven does, and what Chad and David do — they don’t ever under-design anything. It’s always over-designed with so many ingredients you can start to pull away some if you want. What most people don’t know is there’s a whole staircase sequence we cut out. There’s another level, like a video game. We took one level out because I told Larnell, “You guys are doing all these wonderful things. This thing that we cut out is so good, it undercuts all these other things.” And I forgot what it even was, but too much of a good thing.

STOVALL: The team, Mikey, Roger, Hank, Ro, Jay, everybody had their hands in it. The great thing about it with Marshall, what I remember is normally most producers don’t allow the stunt team to go to the locations until it’s finished, until it’s time to shoot, but to help us prepare, they let us actually stunt viz the sequence at the location. So any room for error was eliminated. And I’ll let you in on another little secret. We filmed that sequence in one day, in under 10 hours, because we were so well prepared, so well rehearsed. The teamwork was on point. I had to ask for maybe two minutes of overtime to get my final shot in.

As though I wasn’t already impressed enough.

Drew, I’m coming your way. I feel like we could sit here all day talking about every single set in this series. I am not allowed to keep you here all day, so to highlight at least two things, what wound up being the most ambitious build of the bunch? But then can you also isolate a small detail that might not be front and center in a frame, but you put a lot of work into and it winds up fleshing out the world in ways that people might not realize?

DREW BOUGHTON: The biggest build was the exterior of The Continental, which was a huge set. It’s about 40 feet tall, two NFL football fields side by side in its footprint of construction. Not grass, just actual build. And so that was an enormous structure. But what was wonderful about it is that we had an obstacle with an opportunity in it, and that was that the building in New York that had been used refused to let us use the facade as it had been in the films.

HUGHES: Even to emulate it.

BOUGHTON: Even to emulate it. So we had this opportunity, which is you got to change it for legal purposes. So because the John Wick world is so much about art in all its different ways, about painting and sculpture and dance and photography, in this moment it’s like, “How do I put the sculptures, [those] kinds of things on this building?” So we came up with the idea to put these eagles to give a whole new sort of menacing creative texture, like a secret society vibe to the front of this building. So it was just terrific. And then we put eagles in the back because once we started carving eagles, we couldn’t stop. [Laughs]

HUGHES: Because she asked about the little details, I know it’s not my question to answer, but Drew’s tchotchke game? Unmatched. If you look at Cormac’s office, just look for the horses.

Little details like that is what keeps me coming back for more and more, rewatching and finding things along the way.

I have to let you all go soon. I want to ask two more questions though. Larnell, in one of your answers you rattled off a whole bunch of names and it was making me think of this. You’re all here right now, but there’s a huge team of people that worked on this show, so can you each name someone that is part of your team or someone that you worked with directly that you would call an unsung hero, someone who made all the difference in your own work and helped you exceed your own expectations for yourself?

HUGHES: God bless you. You’re 100% on great questions.

PERSINGER: For me, I will say somebody from production because they’re gonna answer for the crew. So Sam Mill who was our production supervisor coordinator, just unflappable and helped get everybody in the country out of the country …

HUGHES: During a war next door.

Mine is easy. My partner in crime, Kirk Ward, the showrunner and writer who is tireless, and who was embedded with Larnell and saw all that stuff in person, because it was almost like working with my brother. I come from a partnership. One can split up and go over here, I stay in main unit. He has to deal with the craziness in second unit, so Kirk Ward is my hero. And I also wanna say in the midst of what’s going on in the industry, I think this is wonderful that we got to do this because these are actually the unsung heroes, and they don’t get enough credit during panels like this. It’s always the actors and directors that get all the glory, but these are also my heroes.

STOVALL: Look, Roger, Mikey, Hank, Roar, all amazing, but I gotta give Mikey a lot of props on this. He was one of the fight coordinators. Very creative with storytelling, action design. We had our own language where we didn’t have to say much and get a lot done faster, but he delivered that shot in the stairwell. That was him on the camera dropping down into the stairwell. And then that was him at the beginning coming out getting thrown and his head got slammed three times, then had to go upstairs, put a harness on, and then get lowered with a specific timing where it felt like the camera became a character for just that moment where it didn’t feel like a gimmick.

HUGHES: But you’re not describing Mikey and really what he is; he’s a jack of all trades. He actually will shoot, he will do the stunt, he’ll help coordinate, and then he’ll go and start editing while they’re moving on to the next shot and he’ll edit the sequence before they’re done with the sequence

STOVALL: To make sure we had it, because we were on such a tight time frame. There was one real difficult shot when I only had three minutes left. He grabbed the camera and got the shot on the first take. I had three minutes left, and I didn’t want to cancel this spot because it was a stitch between the next sequence and I was like, “I have to get this. I have to get this. Mikey, get in there!”

ROSEN: First of all, I second Kirk Ward. He was our writer-showrunner and he was supporting us every step of the way and was right there. But also from my team, Armen Gasparian started as my assistant on the first episode, and by the end, he had moved up to a second editor. He was so instrumental in not only the edit, but sound and music and the glue of post-production.

BOUGHTON: So I’m gonna say Zsuzsa Kismarty-Lechner who’s the supervising art director and her amazing Hungarian team. Really extraordinary.

STOVALL: I gotta add Kirk Ward back into it because he was like one of the boys for us. He fought for time, he fought for rehearsals, he fought for anything we needed. He made sure we got what we needed whether it was time, consistency. But he would come by and actually watch our rehearsals. I’d never seen a writer do this before. He would come by and watch our process, then go back and write it in the script so that way everybody was more prepared instead of waiting for a video, which most productions do. They see the stunt viz and then there’s meetings about the budget. Can we afford this? Can we do this? Kirk said, “I’m just gonna write it into the script to make sure it’s broken down properly.”

Albert, I’ll throw my last question your way. This is the greediest question I could ask because these episodes haven’t been released yet, but I have watched them, obviously, and that means I want more. Has there been any conversation at all about doing another three-part series or any other format about stories that take place in other hotels around the world?

HUGHES: Oh, that’s an interesting question. You didn’t even ask for a Season 2. You’re building out the universe.

I love the anthology format and I feel like more franchises don’t explore that as much as they should.

HUGHES: I wouldn’t even know the answer to that, to be honest. We know Ballerina is coming out, we know about this project. They haven’t approached me about anything. I guess they don’t like me? No! I’m sure they have plans. I guess if I’m thinking in a business way, they wait for the show to drop and see how the audience take to it, and then they make their plans go bigger accordingly.

The Continental three-part event begins on Peacock on September 22nd with the release of Night 1 and continues with Night 2 on September 29th and Night 3 on October 6th