John Wick director says the studio has already asked for a third film

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

“If ya’ll are ready for John Wick make some noise! What? He’s not—oh, I see, alright, alright. Due to an unforeseen pet-related emergency John Wick will not be performing tonight. Drive home safety!”

I would be a great John Wick hype man, no? Though that may be glaringly true, the movie JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 needs no hype man, as the trailer was met with rousing cheers of approval (and so has everything else from images to the posters). Needless to say the world is ready to see John Wick (Keanu Reeves) kick ass again, and the studio, Lionsgate, knows it. In fact, they’ve already asked the director to start coming up with ideas for more adventures.

Collider was able to speak with WICK director Chad Stahelski, and, naturally, the question regarding a third film came up:

“The studio has asked us to put our heads together and see if we can come up with something. Winston’s [Ian McShane] is a big part of the next one, so is Lance Reddick. We’ve got some ideas.”

As we all know, what the studio wants the studio gets, one way or another. The only real way this movie won’t get the trilogy treatment is if CHAPTER 2 doesn’t get the same level of reception the first did, as well as a diminished box office return. But the chances of that happening are about as good as surviving a punch from Reeves, because if you ask the director (which Collider did) about the quality of CHAPTER 2, this movie has a lot to look forward to:

“When it came to coming up with a story idea, we had like ten bad ideas, and they we were like, ‘fuck it,’ what would have just happened the next day. Once we stopped worrying about ourselves, it was fun. Is it as good as the first one? I don’t know, that’s personal opinion. Did we go better in some ways? Yes. Did we explore the character more? Yes. It’s better, I think, technically. Is the enjoyment better? Yes, it’s there, but it’s completely different.”

When it comes to most sequels the idea is to be “bigger and better” than the original, but with WICK 2 Stahelski and his team seem to be focusing on “better.” The trailer offers many of the Wick-ish thrills we fell in love with in the first film without feeling like they're blowing it up to astronimical proportions. So the odds of this movie being as good as the first, at least enough to warrant a third, is highly plausible. Plus, who names their sequel "CHAPTER 2" without anticipating a "The Final Chapter"? Who just gives up after chapter two? That's not proper storytelling!

The second chapter begins with JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 in theaters Febuary 10, 2017 with Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Common, Ruby Rose, Bridget Moynahan and John Leguizamo.