Mel Gibson to Lead John Wick Prequel Series The Continental at Starz

Mel Gibson has been tapped to lead the Starz original series The Continental, which serves as a prequel to Keanu Reeves’ John Wick movies, our sister site Deadline reports.

Produced by Lionsgate Television, the three-night event takes John Wick fans back to 1975 New York City, where a young criminal named Winston Scott navigates the city’s nefarious underbelly in an attempt to take control of The Continental, a notorious hangout for all manner of ne’er-do-wells. Though Winston, who is played in the films by Ian McShane, has not yet been cast, Deadline reports that Gibson will be playing a character named Cormac.

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The John Wick film franchise, which stars Reeves as a mafia-trained assassin, has so far included three theatrical releases (2014, 2017 and 2019) with a fourth set to be released in 2022. Along with Reeves and McShane, the films star the likes of Anjelica Huston, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo and Laurence Fishburne.

Though Gibson appeared in several Australian TV productions early in his career, including titles like The Sullivans and Cop Shop, he has since stuck mostly to film, despite popping up in three episodes of the mid-2000s Fox comedy Complete Savages.

Your thoughts on Gibson joining the Wick-verse? Your thoughts on the prequel series in general? Look, we know you’ve got thoughts, so just go ahead and drop ’em in a comment below.

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