After four hit films the John Wick world expands with next week’s “Ballerina,” the franchise’s first spin-off.

It’s been a complicated birth, highlighted by delays, reshoots and replacements.

The series’ low-key 2014 debut “John Wick” arrived without high expectations yet quickly became a fan favorite and a global box-office magnet.

It resurrected Keanu Reeves’ career with a blockbuster third act and spawned four consecutive hits, each with the iconic “Matrix” actor starring as a retired assassin and recent widower brought back into an elaborately detailed underworld.

The first “John Wick” — doesn’t that name suggest lighting a fuse? — worked thanks to critics and fans marveling at its simple plot — “They killed my dog and they’re gonna pay for it” — and intricately constructed, martial arts-influenced action sequences.

Those one-long-take intricately choreographed fight scenes, from the stunt veterans-turned-co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch (who were recommended by Reeves), immediately became the series hallmarks.

Creating a spin-off began in 2017 with Lionsgate’s purchase of Shay Hatten’s spec script. Hatten would go on to be the lead writer for the last Wick film, the simply titled “John Wick Chapter 4” in 2023.

He was inspired to write his “Ballerina” script when he saw the trailer (not the full film!) to “John Wick Chapter 2.” That script quickly acquired prestige as one of the year’s best unproduced screenplays.

In another expansion of the series, a new director, Len Wiseman (the “Underworld” movies), was hired in 2019 to shake, stir and generally revitalize the formula a bit. Wiseman’s choice of composer Marco Beltrami, with whom he’d worked previously, was replaced by the series’ usual composing duo, Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard.

“Ballerina” follows the series’ familiar format as an elaborate revenge plot with Russian ballerina-assassin Eve Macarro determined to avenge her father’s death.

Movies have long cherished the contrast between a ballerina’s delicacy and lithe visuals with the gritty determination required to leap, dance and twirl in the highly unnatural way that is dancing on your toes. Recent examples: Natalie Portman’s Oscar-winning “Black Swan,” and Jennifer Lawrence, “Red Sparrow.”

The Cuban-born Ana de Armas, 37, was cast in 2021, the year she scored as a memorable “Bond girl” in “No Time to Die.” She then became Cuba’s first-ever Oscar nominee, playing Marilyn Monroe in “Blonde” (2022).

“Ballerina,” now billed as being “From the World of John Wick,” brings back Anjelica Huston, Lance Reddick (his final screen appearance), Ian McShane and Reeves.

The new cast members are led by Gabriel Byrne’s villain, known as Chancellor.

“Ballerina” opens in theaters June 6