John Wick 5 is official and Keanu Reeves has signed on to “give John’s story the proper next step.” We know that much. But, how can that be, given the ending of John Wick 4? It turns out that’s something of a head-scratcher even for director Chad Stahelski.
Warning! Spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4 follow.
John Wick appears to die at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4 after, once again, defeating the bad guys. We even get to see John Wick’s gravestone, with Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) saying their farewells. But, crucially, we only see John Wick collapse from his injuries and appear to die.
So, how can Reeves continue as Wick? The Hollywood Reporter asked Stahelski if he’d managed to work that out yet in a recent interview. Here’s the exchange:
THR: You’ve said that John Wick 5 won’t renege on the ending of 4, that John Wick will still have died. Has that evolved? The last time we spoke last year, you were trying to crack it.
Chad Stahelski: I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a bit of a conundrum. Me and Mike Finch — the writer on 4 who’s also writing 5 — we’ve got a pretty good story that I think is cool. Once we have a 50-page book, and if we’re feeling it, we’ll sit with Keanu and shape this thing. Look, everybody seems to want it. It’s a matter of whether we crack it. We’re actively working on it. It’s just … is it going to be satisfying?”
Stahelski’s comments make it sound like he’s still trying to work out exactly what John Wick 5 is, which in turn suggests it’s a fair way from production. In fact, Stahelski’s comments make it sound like John Wick 5 might not even happen, if he and his team fail to “crack it.”
Stahelski continued: “If we go down the road of John Wick 5 and build this story and decide this isn’t right, there are probably going to be 10 other things we’ll discover that we’ll use for other things. It’s a great creative exercise. It’s being in the room riffing with people we love. That’s nothing but wins.”
So, it’s not certain John Wick 5 will happen?
Stahelski again: “The studio would very much will it into existence, I’m sure, at some point. Look, they’ve been great and they’ve asked us to really try and we have a really good couple of ideas and we’re going to try.”
John Wick 5 is (probably) happening, then, but we don’t know what it is yet. What we know it isn’t is a prequel, as Stahelski ruled that out: “Keanu and I are not interested in going backwards.”
It’s worth remembering that while Keanu Reeves appears ageless, he is in fact 60-years-old, and there will come a point when he is unable to play Wick in the same way he has before. So perhaps he’ll play Wick in a different way. In March, Stahelski told Empire: “The saga of John Wick was pretty wrapped up. So the only way to do a 5 is to have a new story that involves John Wick. It’s not a continuation with the High Table. John dealt with his grief. It will be really different, and everybody [will] see the trailer and go, ‘Holy fuck… I gotta see that.’”
It’s a busy time for the billion dollar John Wick franchise. In addition to the four mainline films, the John Wick Universe, as it’s called, includes two spinoff films (the just-released Ballerina and a spinoff directed by and starring Donnie Yen reprising his Caine character, set to start production this summer).
In addition, Lionsgate Television produced The Continental: From the World of John Wick for Peacock and Amazon Prime, and Lionsgate confirmed it’s developing the TV series John Wick: Under the High Table, which Stahelski and Keanu Reeves are executive producing. There’s an animated prequel film that will tell the story of John Wick’s ‘Impossible Task,’ too.
Outside TV and films, Lionsgate recently opened an immersive John Wick experience in Las Vegas and has a John Wick AAA video game in the works.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
