The Continental director explains what fans need to know before watching John Wick spinoff

The John Wick cinematic universe is extending into television with a prequel after the fourth film installment devastated fans earlier this year. 

The Amazon Prime series takes place in the titular The Continental Hotel, which became synonymous with the John Wick world of assassins as a rare refuge for the underground groups Keanu Reeves found himself amongst. 

However, the series is set 40 years before the events of the very first John Wick movie, as director Albert Hughes assured viewers will get the same rush of “pure escapism” from the three-part series regardless of how familiar they are with the franchise. 

He shared just a few pointers viewers should know before flipping the channel: “It’s a world that feels like a parallel universe with a subculture of assassins which is what John Wick does so well.

“It’s mysterious. It doesn’t give you all the answers. (It has) Fights, stunts, really idiosyncratic characters. You can go to the film series or the television series and it’s the same thing.”

For the more invested John Wick fans, Albert revealed there’s a “new” element in The Continental they should expect with the walls of the iconic hotel. 

He shared: “We’re now in the 70s and it’s about Winston and his origin story with Jerome. 

“Then we have an extra level which is introducing all the music of the 70s, the different genres, we get to mix them altogether and come up with this playful atmosphere, sometimes serious sometimes deadly.”

While the director certainly had a keen eye for detail and hoped to get in as much real New York 1970s grit as possible, he revealed that the John Wick universe itself refused to take it. 

Albert continued: “Usually I’m wired to grab from the headlines, putting the realities of that in but I had to sit myself down and have a serious talk one day like; ‘(The Continental) doesn’t want it’ and it’s good that it doesn’t because this is strictly there for the audience to be entertained.

“If you bore them that’s the biggest rule in the John Wick world; don’t bore them.”

While there are endless similarities between The Continental and the Chad Stahelski movies, Albert revealed some key differences too: “The Wick films have a strange decadence and style, whether it’s camera style, clothes, production, interiors. 

“We have a similar thing but it’s just set 40 years earlier and when you have a trashy New York it doesn’t look as glossy as the John Wick films, it has more of a tactile, organic, dare I say trashy feel.”