Mel Gibson To Star In John Wick TV Series The Continental

Oscar-winner Mel Gibson will star in the John Wick prequel TV series The Continental. Deadline reports that Gibson, a controversial person in Hollywood, will play a character named Cormac. Gibson, who won two Academy Awards for Braveheart, has made racist and anti-Semitic comments in the past, leading some to ask how he still has a career. Despite this, he remains a very in-demand actor, director, and producer.

The Continental is a three-part TV series coming to Starz and produced by Lionsgate Television. The prequel to the Keanu Reeves film series digs into the history of The Continental, the hotel featured in the movies. The main character is a young Winston Scott in 1975 New York.

Ian McShane plays Winston in the John Wick films, but there is no word on who will portray him on the TV show.

"Winston charts a deadly course through the New York's mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the iconic hotel, which serves as the meeting point for the world's most dangerous criminals," reads a line from the show's description.

Lionsgate boss Kevin Beggs told Deadline that the John Wick movie series has "such a great mythology and such interesting style" that it's exciting to see it branch out into TV.

"Just like the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe from a TV perspective are incredibly opportunities, and that is our superhero franchise in the family," Beggs said.

"What we're exploring in The Continental is the young Winston and how it came to be that he and his team of confederates found their way into this hotel which we have met for the first time in the movie franchise 40 years later," Beggs explained.

The three installments of The Continental will be about 90 minutes long and carry a budget of $20 million each, so in total, fans are getting 4.5 hours of the TV show on a budget of $60 million.

John Wick's original screenwriter, Derek Kolstad (Nobody), is coming back to be an executive producer on The Continental, while the director of the movies, Chad Stahelski, is also aboard as an executive producer. David Leitch, who has been involved in the John Wick series since the beginning, will be an executive producer as well, while Keanu Reeves himself is said to be "in talks" to exec produce.

In addition to The Continental, John Wick 4 is in the works. Release dates for The Continental and John Wick 4 have not been announced yet. We'll see Keanu Reeves next in The Matrix 4 Resurrections this December.