John Wick director Chad Stahelski has discussed the future of the John Wick series, everyone who worked on John Wick 4–including himself, Keanu Reeves, and the crew–would love to come back for a fifth film. However, they need to find the right story so fans don’t feel ripped off. This story contains major spoilers for the John Wick series.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Stahelski said Keanu would leap at the opportunity to play John Wick again, but that could be challenging since John Wick died–or at least we think he did–in the fourth movie.
“Keanu, if you ask him right now would you do John Wick 5, he’d be like, ‘F**k yeah.’ But then he’d go, ‘Well, what is it? I have no f**king idea,'” Stahelski said.
“If I was driving in the car or walking the dog and an idea hit me, within 30 seconds I’d be on the phone to Keanu and we’d be riffing,” the director added.
Stahelski went on to say that he has ideas for big action set pieces for another John Wick movie, including elements that did not make it into previous films. But all of that being said, Stahelski wants to make sure a fifth John Wick movie lives up to what fans want.
“You wouldn’t find anybody involved with John Wick that wouldn’t want to do another,” Stahleski said. “I don’t think there’s any reason to bring John Wick back without a real reason.”
“Most of the audience would love to see Keanu back, they just don’t want to be treated like they’re idiots. They don’t want to be treated like hey give me your $14 and we’ll bring back the guy and he’ll shoot more people in the head,” he added. “I’m part of the audience, and I would feel ripped off if I did something like that. None of us are opposed to doing John Wick 5. We just don’t know how to do it. We’re not that smart.”
Stahelski also said he feels fortunate to be at the helm of such a big and beloved franchise with big studio money and a huge star behind it.
“You know why I do more John Wicks? Because I f**king love Keanu and because I f**king love the genre, and I love that they let me do what I want,” he said. “I love everything about it. It is an arduous, painstaking, stressful, how-do-I-outdo-myself, how do we not let down the audience, every day stressing… And I love every f**king minute of it.”
In May, Lionsgate announced that John Wick 5 was in development, but clearly, this was only a high-level reveal considering what Stahelski has said about it. The aim is to create a “regular cadence” of releases, and this includes entries in the core series as well as spin-offs.
“Ballerina is the first spin-off that comes out next year. We’re in development on three others, including 5 and including television series, The Continental, will be airing soon. But you can rely on a regular cadence of John Wick,” Lionsgate said.
Ballerina is a spin-off that stars Ana de Armas as an assassin. The Continental, meanwhile, is a TV series that stands as a prequel to the movies.
The original plan was to film John Wick 4 and 5 back to back, but Stahelski said he simply didn’t have it in him, creatively, to make another one alongside the fourth.
As for the new John Wick video game, Lionsgate has said it is “continuing to have those conversations.” The company believes there is a “ton of energy” around the prospect of making a John Wick video game.
Back in November, Lionsgate said the company believes “there is a big AAA game to be made out of John Wick,” and that the company has fielded proposals for it.
Mike Bithell released a John Wick game in 2020 called John Wick Hex. This was a strategy game and a prequel to the John Wick universe in terms of its story. John Wick the character has appeared in Fortnite and Payday 2. A VR game called John Wick Chronicles was released in 2017.
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