Warning: SPOILERS for The Continental episode “Brothers In Arms” are ahead!
Because the John Wick spinoff show The Continental is streaming to Peacock subscribers, that means it can get delve into the kind of intense material one finds on premium cable channels like HBO. That’s appropriate considering how violent the John Wick movies are, and yet Albert Hughes, who executive produced The Continental and directed its first and third episodes, almost toned down a particularly intense scene in the first episode. Having now seen “Brothers In Arms” for myself, I get why he initially wanted to do this.
While speaking with TV Line, Hughes noted with streaming in particular, a “TV-MA” rating isn’t as restrictive compared to what MPAA dishes out for movies. As such, he wasn’t told to “cut back or cut down on anything” while making The Continental, though he nonetheless was initially inclined to soften a specific scene involving someone being horribly beaten. As Hughes explained:
In fact, I wanted to tone something down — it’s a scene in Episode 1 where the Adjudicator (Katie McGrath) is lording over her henchman who’s punching this guy in a chair, and the sound effects are nasty. My editor was just staying there and I was like, ‘I don’t know, man, I think it’s too much,’ and he goes ‘It’s Wick, man! It’s the Wick world. It’s not too much.’ So we were like, OK, let’s just keep it in and if the studio complains about it then I know that I’m kind of right. Nope. They didn’t complain about it, so it’s still in.
The scene Albert Hughes is referencing comes roughly two-thirds into The Continental’s debut episode, when the former partner of Winston Scott’s brother, Ben Robson’s Frankie, is being interrogated by a bulky, kilt-wearing goon under the supervision of Katie McGrath’s Adjudicator. McGrath’s character is determined to track down Frankie, as he and the interrogated party broke into the New York Continental’s vault on New Year’s Eve and stole a coin press used to make the gold coins that the assassins of this colorful underworld use as currency. Ironically, although Frankie’s partner double-crossed him during the heist, he wasn’t able to escape the hotel. Even worse, he has no idea where Frankie ran off to, though he’s certainly deserving of the beating for the way he disrespected The Continental, and by extension The High Table.
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Naturally there’s a fair amount of blood during this interrogation, but as Hughes said, it’s the sounds that really sell how brutal this is. Ultimately though, he listened to his editor and left the scene intact, and no one at Lionsgate told them to alter it later down the line. Mercifully, the scene ends as The Adjudicator’s goon kicks things up a notch by head butting his victim and then wailing on the man until he’s dead. Crossing The High Table has consequences, after all.
Of course, this is just one of the many violent scenes contained within the first episode, and there will be many more to follow in the next two. Along with the aforementioned actors, The Continental’s cast includes Colin Woodell, Mel Gibson, Ayomide Aden, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Jessica Allain, Mishel Prada, Nhung Kate and Peter Greene, among many others. Showrunners Greg Coolidge and Kirk Ward wrote the series with Shawn Simmons and Ken Kristensen, and Charlotte Brändström directed the second episode.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage on The Continental and other shows left on the 2023 TV schedule. Don’t forget that John Wick: Chapter 4 is now available to stream on Star (which can easily be added on to your Hulu subscription), and the franchise will further expand next year with the Ana de Armas-led film spinoff Ballerina.