Even though John Wick: Chapter 4 has pulled in over $400 million worldwide and is one of the highest-grossing movies of 2023 so far, that doesn’t mean that signals a guaranteed John Wick 5. And that’s coming from director Chad Stahelski, who has helmed the series since the beginning.
Speaking with The Direct, Stahelski said so much energy and creativity was put into the fourth movie that he couldn’t possibly begin to comprehend John Wick 5, although he hasn’t completely shut out the idea. “The real question you ask yourself is not, ‘Do I want it?’ Yes, I wouldn’t mind doing it. We just tried to knock it out of the park. We tried to put everything on the table, take nothing, and leave it all. Like, ‘Fuck it, every idea. We’re not saving anything. We’re not trying to build. Just everything you got, leave it there.’ We feel we put everything we had into John Wick 4, and we feel we completed the cycle. We feel like we ended it. So, we feel like, ‘You know, that was a great way to wrap up the previous three films and the fourth and deliver something satisfying and fun.’” He added, “Right now, if you put a gun in my head, you might as well shoot me.” OK, what if we kill your dog, though…?
That’s not terribly hopeful for John Wick 5. And one has to consider just how much effort goes into creating an action-forward film that has an actual story to it. It’s not just writing itself: Keanu beats up baddies for an hour, sprinkle in a little more backstory to expand the universe, have him go at it for another hour or so, roll credits. Boom, John Wick 5! But that can get tiresome and turn into self-parody, which is something Stahelski is well aware of. “It’s very easy to be repetitive. The trick is how you be repetitive with individuality. How do you put your authorship or your agency into something that’s obviously been done three times before?”
Whether or not we get John Wick 5, the universe is expanding greatly over the next couple of years, with miniseries The Continental hitting Peacock in September and spinoff Ballerina twirling to theaters in June 2024. But Stahelski did say earlier this year that he and Keanu Reeves would be giving the series a rest but that if the right idea made it to paper, he’d be game, so maybe there will be a time and place for it down the line.
Would you like there to be a John Wick 5 or did the fourth chapter give the series a fitting enough conclusion? Let us know!
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