Colin Woodell to star in John Wick prequel series The Continental as young Winston

John Wick fans were buzzing yesterday when it was revealed that Mel Gibson had joined the cast of The Continental, the upcoming John Wick prequel series. It has now been reported that Colin Woodell (The Flight Attendant) is set to star in the series as a young Winston Scott, the character played by Ian McShane in the John Wick movies.

The Continental will explore “the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins, a centerpiece of the John Wick universe, through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott (Woodell) who is dragged into the Hell-scape of a 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. 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.” It was also announced that Hubert Point-Du Jour (The Good Lord Bird), Jessica Allain (The Laundromat), Mishel Prada (Vida), Nhung Kate (The Housemaid), and Ben Robson (Animal Kingdom) have joined the John Wick prequel series as well.

“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,” said Lionsgate TV’s Kevin Beggs. “That’s the arena. I won’t give away more than that, but Starz leaned into this take also, and they have been great collaborators. And how we’ve approached this first season is as three essentially 90-minute events which you could construe as a limited series or a limited event series.“

The Continental will be a three-night special-event TV series, with the first and third nights set to be directed by Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli) with Charlotte Brändström (The Lord of the Rings) helming the second night. The whole project sounds like an awful lot of fun and I can’t wait to see how they expand the franchise. The nature of Mel Gibson’s character in the John Wick prequel series isn’t known, only that he’ll be playing a character by the name of Cormac.