From The World Of John Wick’

It all starts with a sketch. Or so says Albert Hughes about his work on the series The Continental: From the World of John Wick.

Set in New York City in the ‘70s, the series is a prequel to the John Wick films that explores the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins. Following the young hotel proprietor Winston Scott, a role portrayed by Ian McShane in the films and Colin Woddell in this version, The Continental tells the origin story of a chain of hotels that serve as a neutral ground for an underworld of assassins.

While Winston rises to helm The Continental eventually, during the timeline of the series he is just a businessman who is not well connected. To move up the chain and gain more control, Winston puts together his own crew which includes a former Khmer Rouge soldier, Yen (Nhung Kate), and siblings with a martial arts background, Lou (Jessica Allain) and Miles (Hubert Point-Du Jour). The series also stars Mel Gibson, Mishel Prada and Ben Robson.

Hughes (The Book of Eli, Menace II Society), who served as executive producer and directed two episodes of the three-part series, explains that he started drawing when he was 12 and was, ‘the kind of kid who was always afraid to show up without doing the homework.’

So to prep for directing The Continental, Hughes says, “With film, I do a detailed shot list, not a traditional one with coloring coding etc, but I started with shorthand sketching, and then I write it and then I type that out into a longer document, which is usually longer than the script, and then I laminated for myself to have on set.”

That document, which is shared with the entire production team, is constantly updated by Hughes.

He adds that, “It starts with the creative side, and I’ve learned the first image that comes to your mind when you’re reading a script is usually is the right image. If you go with the first instinct and listen to that, it’s usually the right the right one, then you can start to do the overall dogmatic rules [of directing.”

Executive Producer Basil Iwanyk, who’s worked on all of the John Wick films, says about Hughes, “Albert came in and said, ‘I’m a huge fan, here’s what I love, here’s what I think could be different, ‘and we’re like, ‘that’s interesting.’”

Iwanyk echoes Hughes sentiments of the first idea as usually the best idea, saying, “If you start doubting your instincts, you start overcorrecting.”

To that end, Iwanyk discloses that the creative team knew that The Continental had to chart its own course, but he says that this process isn’t easy to describe, “It’s hard to explain, like, we knew it needed to feel different, not just from the movies. We knew it needed to feel different from anything that was on television. If you look, there aren’t a lot of action shows. And it’s always the same thing that we’ve been hearing for years, like, it’s so expensive to do action, so just don’t do it. That’s nonsense.”

Aside from this, there was the task of finding just the right actor to play the lead role, which Iwanyk says, “It was a little daunting, especially with having Ian McShane, [as the character in the films because] he has a very specific look.”

Fellow executive producer Erica Lee, who has also produced all of the associated films, adds that casting, “was hard. I mean, we met tons of actors and we came across Colin. We just loved what he had done in the past but also we talked about that Winston has this twinkle in his eyes, and Colin embodies that. He’s really done an amazing job of capturing the character.”

Lee also mentioned that, “we wanted this to look like ‘70s noir and [to that end] the music is a character in the show, more so than in the movies.”

Hughes believes that finding the right music is key, saying that songs can trigger memories for a certain segment of the audience because they’re familiar, and if they’re ‘poppy’ enough they’re good for the younger generation as well. He adds, “And then you try to introduce also more obscure tracks because I don’t like films or TV shows that use too much pop. It’s too easy.”

He continues with, “If you’re doing needle drops (well known, time period specific songs), sometimes they’re not always successful, like you don’t land them right [as in] the irony is not subtle enough or it’s too subtle. It’s a weird dance. It’s your job to pick those out. Now, having said that, I do have partners [who tell me when something doesn’t work] and [offer suggestions, like,] ‘How about this?’”

The series will also feature some subtle nods to the film for fans of the movies, says Iwanyk, but he adds, “I think probably the best Easter egg is the irony that this whole show is kind of based on an Easter egg.”

He explains that in the first movie, Winston says, “I’ve been running this place for 35 years, and that was the premise of the writers [of the series] coming in and saying, ‘there’s a line in John Wick, and that’s where we’re going to start.’”

While Lee wants viewers to know that The Continental is ‘fresh, interesting and exciting, even if you’re not a John Wick fan,’ Iwanyk feels that the series is, “like the Batman Begins of the John Wick world. Winston finally starts explaining all the insanity that’s been presented in these four movies. You gotta remember that these four movies takes place over like six months. [Winston is] either chasing people or being chased. So, in this, we actually slow down and dig deeper into all these ideas, notions, [and] characters that we kind of fly through [in the films].”

‘The Continental: From the World of John Wick’ premieres Friday, September 22^nd on Peacock, with remaining episodes streaming weekly on Fridays.