While there is no word on when or how, it looks like we will be seeing more of John Wick in the future. John Wick 4 (93%), the latest installment in the blockbuster action film franchise starring Keanu Reeves, hit theaters on March 23 and delighted audiences with a story that seemingly brought closure to the saga. While it seemed that the protagonist’s fate had been sealed in his final film, an update has come from Lionsgate’s president indicating that the journey of the iconic hitman Jardani Jovovich/John Wick is definitely not over.
During a Q4 2023 earnings call from Lionsgate (via Comic Book), Joe Drake, head of the renowned film production company, confirmed that a fifth John Wick film is in early stages of development. The executive first explained the following on the call:
We’re now moving through that franchise, not just in the AAA video game space, but also looking at what is the regular cadence of spin-offs, television really growing that universe so that there’s a steady cadence of a franchise that has a clear audience appetite.
Drake went on to confirm what franchise projects are in the pipeline:
What’s official is that, as you know, Ballerina is the first spin-off coming out next year. We’re in development on three others, including [John Wick 5] and including the TV series, The Continental, which is coming out soon. So, we’re building the world and when those five movies come, it will be organic, it will develop organically from how we started telling those stories. But you can rely on a regular cadence of John Wick.
With the confirmation of John Wick 5, fans will be starting to wonder what Wick’s fate really was in his most recent feature film, as while it was made clear to some extent that the character was dead, there seems to be a possibility that it was his identity as an assassin that died and not literally him. Either way we’ll have to wait for where the Ballerina spin-off and The Continental series are headed to get an idea of what we can expect for the new cinematic installment.
Ballerina is a spin-off film from the John Wick franchise that centers on a ballet dancer trained to kill, played by Ana de Armas. The official synopsis doesn’t give much information, stating only that it follows “a young female assassin seeks revenge against the people who killed her family.” Fortunately, Keanu Reeves himself gave a more detailed description of the story while promoting John Wick 4 at Comic Con Experience 2022 (via Collider):
[She’s a] woman going through very difficult circumstances and she’s out for revenge. Someone killed her father – who could it be? So it’s her journey to really understand her past. She lost her father at a young age, and she doesn’t really know what happened. Just that someone broke into the house and killed her father, who had a tattoo. And as we know in John Wick, if you have a tattoo, something’s going on.
According to Collider, Ballerina will be directed by Len Wiseman from a script by Shay Hatten, and will also see the return of Keanu Reeves as John Wick and Ian McShane as Winston. Chad Stahelski, director of all the John Wick films, told The Hollywood Reporter the following in a previous interview (via Comic Book):
Having him [Ballerina director Len Wiseman] on board and approaching some of the action design from a slightly different perspective, i.e. the sets, the character’s involvement, how and what he wants to do during the action sequences, makes it a little bit fresh. So, we’re not copying ourselves over and over again with gun-fu or something like that. And because the character is different, we’re going to have a different take on things. But as far as the level, the competition or the style of action? Yes. I plan to be there to help whenever I can. And our team of 87eleven specialists will be very actively involved to help Len with all his action needs.