Colin Woodell: who is Winston Scott actor in The Continental on Amazon Prime, why has he replaced Ian McShane?

The Continental: From the World of John Wick, is an Amazon Prime miniseries based on Winston Scott, a secondary character in the John Wick film franchise.

In the John Wick films Winston, played by Ian McShane, is the manager of The Continental New York, a hotel for assassins with a strict set of rules that prohibits any business being carried out on its grounds.

McShane starred as Winston in all four of the John Wick movies, released between 2014 and 2023, but will not appear in the spin-off series.

The series was originally planned to be set in the present day but producers decided that without Keanu Reeves returning as Wick it wouldn’t work, and  the project became a prequel.

Actor Colin Woodell was tapped for the role of a younger Winston Scott who takes on the then manager of The Continental, Cormac, played by Mel Gibson.

Who plays Winston Scott in The Continental?

Winston is played by Colin Woodell in the John Wick prequel series. The Continental is Woodell’s biggest role to date and his first leading part.

The Californian actor has previously appeared in several episodes of Lifetime comedy Devious Maids, and Showtime series Masters of Sex. He had a small part on political thriller Designated Survivor and starred in The Purge TV series, based on the horror films. Most recently, he appeared alongside Kaley Kuoco in The Flight Attendant.

Woodell’s film roles include appearances in horror movie Unsane, Harrison Ford adventure The Call of the Wild, and crime drama Ambulance.

He is also due to feature in Project Artemis, a romcom starring Scarlett Johansson, Woody Harrelson, and Channing Tatum, which is currently in post-production.

Why did Colin Woodell replace Ian McShane?

The 31 year old actor replaced Ian McShane, 80, on the Amazon series because the show is set in the 1970s, around 50 years before the events of the final John Wick film which was released earlier this year.

Obviously, McShane couldn’t play a 30 year old version of himself, without the use of very expensive de-ageing technology as featured in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Because of this, producers went for a younger star who could pass for a 30 year old Winston, and they landed on Woodell.

However, speaking about his role ahead of the series release, Woodel explained that he didn’t copy McShane’s portrayal of the character, telling IGN that Winston is ‘a completely different person’ in the John Wick films to one we meet in The Continental.

When is The Continental on Amazon Prime?

The first episode of The Continental will arrive on Amazon Prime on Friday 22 September. There are three episodes in the series and they will be released on the site weekly.