MOVIE NEWS – A producer who worked on Peacock John Wick’s streaming spinoff The Continental explains how the series went from ten episodes to three films.

 

 

A producer who worked on the John Wick spinoff The Continental recently spoke out. He explained how the planned ten episodes of the series became three films. The Peacock spinoff series, currently in production, has expanded the world of action-packed films created by Chad Stahelski. The series takes viewers back to the 1970s and the youth of Ian McShane’s mysterious hotel owner, Winston Scott.

Although the series successfully expands the story of its universe, the fact that it only contains three longer episodes may seem strange in a world where spinoff series are regularly given much longer running times.

In fact, the John Wick spinoff was once intended to be much longer than three episodes. But at some point, they decided to shorten the series. A respected producer of the series has spoken out about the shortening. In an Instagram post, Marc Bernardin talked about his work on the Peacock series. He gave some fascinating insight into how the series came together and why it’s not the ten-episode season he was initially working on. Here:

“Now that the WGA strike is over, I suppose I can talk about new stuff. My experience with The Continental was odd. It’s a job I very much wanted, nay, manifested judging by the second slide. There were some terrific people in the writers room, people I’d love to work with again. I did my 20 weeks and then got the call to join Starfleet [as a producer on Star Trek: Picard].

“Then, things happened. The 10-episode series we broke and started to write became three TV movies, which yielded a Frankenstein-smashing together of different stories from different episodes. Casting decisions were made, one of which I’d have fought tooth and nail against, but would have likely lost as I wasn’t the showrunner and the buck doesn’t stop with me. Also, a pandemic.”

“I know a lot of people worked really hard on The Continental. Knowing what it could’ve been, I’m not in a terrible rush to watch it. I spooled up the first episode/movie just to make sure my credit was there. But I hope you dig. That’s always the goal. And if you find yourself diverted from the world for a stretch, then mission accomplished”

 

Did the producer of The Continental object to Mel Gibson’s casting?

 

Bernardin’s sharp new comments make it clear that he disagreed with several critical decisions made by the makers of The Continental after his departure. Clearly, he did not like the move to shrink the story from ten episodes to three feature-length films. This, in his view, resulted in a “Frankenstein-like crushing” of the stories the writers had initially wanted to tell in more detail. Perhaps even more interesting is his brief comment about a casting remark with which he disagreed. This may well suggest that the controversial Mel Gibson has joined the series’ cast as Cormac O’Connor.

Anyway, the miniseries is done – you’ll find our review on the site soon!

Source: Instagram