Director Chad Stahelski and screenwriter Derek Kolstad introduced audiences to an exclusive New York hotel called the Continental in the first outing of John Wick in 2014 starring Keanu Reeves in the title role. Run by Winston Scott (Ian McShane), the establishment is a safe haven for hit men like Wick and the one place in the city where trained assassins are forbidden from spilling blood. This three-part prequel series steps back in time to the 1970s to chart the formative years of the younger Winston (Colin Woodell) as he confronts a deadly past he hoped to leave behind. Exorcising these ghosts puts Winston on a collision course with Cormac (Mel Gibson), the current manager of the Continental, and a rogue's gallery of unsavoury figures who exert a vice-like grip on the criminal underworld