The appeal of Chad Stahelski’s 2014 action movie John Wick was its stripped-down simplicity. The protagonist (Keanu Reeves) was quietly mourning the death of his wife and trying to recover with the puppy she bought him. When a rowdy Russian gangster breaks into his house and kills the dog, John is reinvigorated and it is revealed that he was once known as the world’s most dangerous assassin. He exacts revenge on nearly the entire criminal underworld. The only fantastical twist in John Wick was the Continental Hotel, a luxury lodging for wealthy assassins from around the world. The Continental Hotel could provide its customers with medical care, high-tech body armor, and as many guns as they wanted (usually in large numbers).
But the demand for sequels forced the filmmakers to up the ante by building on the legend of the assassination, creating a bizarre, gigantic world with complex rules and an incomprehensible mythology. By the time of John Wick: Chapter 4 in 2023, the series had become unrecognizably gigantic. Chapter 4 was the Twilight of the Gods film series, a 169-minute feature. After four movies and hours of heavy, bombastic action, John Wick had finally earned the right to die.
Though John appeared to die at the end of “Chapter 4,” the series’ creators have since found a few ways to keep the brand going. A prequel TV series set in the aforementioned hotel, “The Continental,” was also released in 2023, while a spinoff film starring Ana de Armas, “John Wick Presents: Ballerina,” is scheduled to hit theaters on June 6, 2025.
It was later reported that “John Wick: Chapter 5” is currently in development, along with a spinoff film starring Donnie Yen’s “Chapter 4” character. Reeves and Stahelski have also hinted at the possibility of returning to the Continental. In a 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly magazine,Reeves made it clear that he would only return if Stahelski were at the helm.
But…is John Wick not dead?
Notably, Reeves didn’t explain how a truly dearly dead John Wick would come back to wreak mayhem in “Chapter 5.” Perhaps the movie would just reveal that John wasn’t actually dead in the first place, but why not get more creative? Perhaps someone would dig up John’s body in a raging rainstorm to confirm that the assassin was indeed killed. Then someone would stick a long crowbar into John’s dead heart and draw lightning from above. The lightning would then Frankenstein-like bring him back to life so he could continue killing as an immortal zombie. Or maybe it was just a plot twist in Tom McLoughlin’s “Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives.”
Reeves, now 60, appeared to have finished making the John Wick series with Chapter 4. It seemed like a pretty definitive end. But Reeves knows that nostalgia runs strong in Hollywood, and money talks. After all, in 2021 he reprised his role as Neo in The Matrix Resurrection, a sequel that came out 18 years after the series’ previous film. Reeves was then forced to tell EW that there’s a good chance John Wick could return, but only if Stahelski can come up with a good enough reason to continue his story. In his own words:
“I don’t know, but I think I’d have to say it’s a no-brainer. There’s no way I’m doing a John Wick movie without Chad Stahelski. We’ll have to wait and see what it’s like. To me, it’s really right for John Wick to find peace.”
“Ballerina” is set between “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” and “Chapter 4,” and it’s notable that it will feature Reeves as John Wick. Perhaps another Wick-focused film will be some sort of additional prequel (perhaps even a “John Wick: Chapter 3.5”?), but for now, fans of the action-packed series can only speculate.
