This article contains spoilers for From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.The John Wick franchise gave audiences a spectacular new character in Eve, the main character of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Led by actor Ana de Armas, 2025’s Ballerina follows Eve as she trains to become a fully-fledged ᴀssᴀssin of the Ruska Roma, eventually setting out on her own quest for revenge against the cult that murdered her father. Though Ballerina‘s main character is a protagonist in the John Wick franchise, she is a very different character from Keanu Reeves’s infamous Baba Yaga, both as a person and a fighter.
Like John, Eve is depicted with her own limitations on the battlefield in Ballerina. However, these limitations have only forced her to get creative throughout the film, doing what she can with what resources she has to win and outdo her opponents, no matter their size and numbers. To bring such a strong and ᴅᴇᴀᴅly character to life, de Armas had to go through some intense training of her own. In the end, de Armas succeeded in portraying a powerful and distinctive new character that has carved her place in the world of John Wick.
Eve’s Fighting Style In Ballerina Compared To John Wick
Eve Sets Herself Apart From John Wick With Her Unorthodox Fighting Style
When Eve is still training with the Ruska Roma early in Ballerina, her fighter instructor, Nogi, argues that she will always be physically weaker than her opponents, specifically her more muscular male opponents. However, Nogi encouraged her to “fight like a girl” and break and rewrite the rules. Eve then learns to use her strengths and do whatever she can to win, even if it means fighting dirty and hitting opponents below the belt. This style of combat proves beneficial, as it helps her complete her missions and become a certified Ruska Roma ᴀssᴀssin in Ballerina.
However, Eve relies on them more due to lacking the brute strength that fighters like John possess, giving her a more distinctive style of fighting than the Baba Yaga’s.
John has shown many times in his films that he’s not opposed to using any unfair advantages to win his battles. However, Eve relies on them more due to lacking the brute strength that fighters like John possess, giving her a more distinctive style of fighting than the Baba Yaga’s. Even when her opponent is bashing her body across the room, she endures the pain and does what she can to incapacitate her attacker before going in for the kill.
Ballerina Shows Eve’s Resourcefulness In Fights
Eve Held Her Own With Whatever She Could Find In Ballerina
John Wick has repeatedly proven himself to be a clever and creative killer, having notoriously killed three men in a bar with a pencil. Eve has also shown that she is just as resourceful a fighter as John in Ballerina. Throughout the film, she uses whatever tools and weapons she can find to overpower and defeat her opponents. For example, during the fight at Frank’s weapons shop, she uses a rifle to hold a door shut as she tries to find some more effective weapons to level the playing field.
Eve then strategically uses a handful of grenades that she found to kill the ᴀssᴀssins attacking her, hiding behind metal doors and tables to protect herself from the explosions. While grenades seem to have become part of Eve’s more destructive style, she doesn’t just use traditional weapons in her fights against the cult in Ballerina. At one point, she hits an opponent over the head with a bunch of plates as she tries to find her gun. She even uses a fire hose to extinguish an ᴀssᴀssin’s flamethrower near the end of the film.
Is Eve A Better Fighter Than John Wick?
Eve Is Strong And Skilled, But She’s No Match For The Baba Yaga
Eve had the chance to measure her skills against John Wick in Ballerina, as the Director sent him to kill her in the Chancellor’s isolated town. Though Eve had been wounded fighting the Chancellor’s other ᴀssᴀssins earlier in the film, she put up a good fight against John, with both of them only armed with their guns and fists. However, after a brief battle, John proved he was still a superior fighter to Eve when he had his gun aimed point-blank at her head.
The outcome of this battle shows that the young Eve has a lot to learn before she can match John Wick, who honed his skills and focus after decades of experience. It is also worth noting that John wasn’t even trying to kill her in Ballerina. He repeatedly asked her to abandon her quest for revenge and to leave the Chancellor’s town during their fight.
However, Eve continued to resist, and the fight lasted longer than John would have liked. The only reason Eve walked away from John alive was because he spared her life, allowing her to finish her quest for revenge. One can only imagine how much faster the fight would’ve lasted had John actually wanted to kill her.
How Ana De Armas Trained For Eve’s Ballerina Fight Scenes
The Role Of Eve Required Months Of Hard Training
Most action movie roles require intense physical training, and de Armas’s experience in Ballerina was no different. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, de Armas discussed her training for the role of Eve. She claimed that every day of shooting Ballerina tested her limits as a performer due to the amount of “endurance and the level of discipline and commitment and focus“ required for such a movie.
Her training regimen reportedly featured a strict, low-calorie nutrition diet, as well as daily workouts that included 90 minutes of strength training, four to five hours of stunt coordination, firearm practice at a shooting range, and end-of-the-day runs on a treadmill while wearing a weighted vest.
De Armas also claims that her role of Eve required several months of preparation, as opposed to the traditional few weeks it takes to prepare for a film role. Her training regimen reportedly featured a strict, low-calorie nutrition diet, as well as daily workouts that included 90 minutes of strength training, four to five hours of stunt coordination, firearm practice at a shooting range, and end-of-the-day runs on a treadmill while wearing a weighted vest (via The Express Tribune).
Overall, Ballerina provided Eve with a strong introduction to the John Wick franchise as both a character and a fighter. The way she took on scores of ᴀssᴀssins and John himself with the few resources she had at her disposal has made her a spectacular new addition to the universe. Eve certainly isn’t the next John Wick, as she has far fewer years of experience as a fighter than the Baba Yaga. However, she has proven herself to be a strong and formidable ᴀssᴀssin with her own fighting style, which could lead to her becoming a recurring character in the John Wick franchise.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, The Express Tribune
