Ahead of the release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Winston star Ian McShane has opened up about his on-screen partner-in-etiquette, Lance Reddick’s Charon.
Winston and Charon are the action movie duo we didn’t know we needed. They’re charming, calm, loyal, yet lethal when they need to be, proving to be excellent allies to Keanu Reeves’ Baba Yaga.
The same can be said for Ana de Armas’ deadly assassin Eve, who’s leading the upcoming movie Ballerina, with both McShane and Reddick reprising their roles as The Continental’s dynamic duo.
However, Charon’s return is bittersweet. While filming wrapped in February 2023, one month later, Reddick passed away suddenly at age 60. For McShane, he had to say goodbye to his friend and on-screen partner without even knowing it.
Ian McShane describes final memory with Lance Reddick
In a conversation with Dexerto, the Winston star said, “The moment that stands out to me about Lance is a couple of years ago, when John Wick 4 came out. We were in LA, and I said, ‘I’ll see you back for the premiere in a couple of weeks.’
“I went to London, came back, and never saw him again, which is tragic, but there you are.”
McShane praised Reddick as an actor and a friend, saying they both made an unofficial (but brilliant) backstory for Winston and Charon.
“Usually I’d be with him, which was nice, because we invented this backstory between us that they met in Africa in the ‘70s when I was working for MI6 and he was local government,” he told us.
“They kept in touch… and when they got too old, they got kicked out, and then they formed this partnership in private and formed this relationship… who knows who backed them. That’s the great thing, maybe that’s in John Wick 5, you never know.”
Thankfully, Ballerina paves the way for Charon to get a far better send-off than in John Wick 4, when he was ruthlessly shot by the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård).
McShane said Lance was “terrific” on set, adding, “It was lovely to see him, and it was a fitting epitaph in a way.”
Ballerina is in cinemas from June 6, 2025. In the meantime, check out every upcoming John Wick movie, why Baby Yaga isn’t actually dead, and other new movies to watch this month.
