For the better part of the past decade, the John Wick franchise has cranked out four of the best action movies of all time that continued to up the ante for Keanu Reeves’ titular character. Over the years, John Wick has gone from a retired widower to being thrown back into a life of secret societies and heart-pounding action sequences, cheating death time and time again along the way. With the John Wick: Chapter 4 ending seemingly putting an end to Baba Yaga’ story, many are left wondering if this is the last we’ll see of the badass character.
So, where does the franchise stand, and what do prominent figures like Reeves, director Chad Stahelski, and Lionsgate’s top brass have to say about the possibility of a John Wick 5? Well, we’re about to break down what has been said about the movie that may or may not come to fruition.
Initially, Lionsgate's CEO Said There Were Plans To Shoot The Fourth And Fifth John Wick Movies Back-To-Back
Though John Wick 5 is very much in the air right now, there was one point in time when the movie was not only going to happen, it was going to be shot back-to-back with John Wick: Chapter 4.
Back in August 2020, Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer explained during an earning’s call (via Deadline) that the studio was in the early stages of planning the fourth and fifth installments in the franchise, a little more than a year after the third movie became the king of the 2019 summer blockbuster season. During the call, Feltheimer provided an update on the status of both in-the-works projects, saying:
We’re also busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theatres Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 & 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year.
Obviously, the initial plan to shoot the both movies back-to-back never panned out, and fans were left wondering if John Wick 5 would actually be happening or not. The future of the project would only get more uncertain from there, especially ahead of the fourth movie's release, which itself was delayed multiple times before everything was said and done.
Keanu Reeves Sounded Uncertain When Discussing The Future Prior To John Wick: Chapter 4’s Release
In the months leading up to the March 2023 release of John Wick: Chapter 4, the next steps for the mainline franchise didn’t become any clearer, as director Chad Stahelski said it was Lionsgate’s intention to continue past the fourth installment while he stood on the fence. The uncertainty reached higher levels in January 2023 when Keanu Reeves told Total Film (via GamesRadar) that a fifth movie really depended on how the audience responded to Chapter 4, saying:
You have to see how the audience responds to what we did. The only reason we’ve had a chance to make these movies is that people have liked what we have done. So I think we have to wait and see how the audience responds to it. Hopefully they’ll like it.
The movie ended up being a massive success, both in terms of critical response (it had a near-perfect score in Cinemablend’s John Wick: Chapter 4 review) and box office returns, breaking franchise records in the process, despite being nearly three hours in length. But as Stahelski would say around the release, John Wick 5 was anything but guaranteed.
Chad Stahelski Is ‘Done For The Moment’ But Has Yet To Make A Final Decision
In March 2023, just days before John Wick: Chapter 4 was set to premiere in theaters, director Chad Stahelski sat down for an extensive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where he touched on the franchise’s future, saying he was “done for the moment,” but had not made a final decision:
In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We’re going to give John Wick a rest. I’m sure the studio has a plan. If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we’ll take a quiet minute. Wicks always, for some weird reason, always get the latest release date in Japan. It’s always like, three months later. If it’s the same this time, we’ll do a Japanese tour and release the movie in September. Keanu and I will take the long trip to Tokyo, we’ll sit in the Imperial Hotel Scotch Bar and go, ‘What do you think?’ We’ll have a couple 20-year-old whiskies and write some ideas on napkins. If those ideas stick, maybe we’ll make a movie.
Stahelski stopped short of providing a definite answer about the franchise’s future, but it sounds like we could hypothetically know more about a potential John Wick 5 at some point this fall.
Stahelski Also Said He Doesn’t Know What John Wick: Chapter 5 Is Right Now
Though we didn’t see John’s body be lowered into the grave at the end of Chapter 4, it was heavily implied throughout the final moments (as well as throughout the movie) that the reluctant killer’s fight against the High Table was going to be his last. That being said, Stahelski hadn’t even thought about a possible next step for the franchise when speaking with ScreenRant in March 2023:
I don't know what John Wick 5 is right now. I may have thoughts, ideas, and fragments of stuff, but I think I need a little time to breathe and see how this one does.
Later in the interview, the stuntman-turned-director revealed that he’s always hard on himself after finishing a movie, saying that he needed time to process, grow creatively, and then take what he’s learned and make something better than before. Whether or not that plan involves the main character or a continuation of the John Wick: Chapter 4 end credits sequence is anyone’s guess at this point.
Lionsgate Chief Joe Drake Has Said There’s An ‘Openness’ To John Wick 5
But, just when it looked like John Wick: Chapter 4 would be the end of the story for everyone’s favorite formerly retired contract killer, the powers that be made a shocking announcement that John Wick 5 was back on the table. When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in March 2023, Lionsgate President Joe Drake, citing JW4’s box office success, made it sound like the studio was down to continue the story despite Wick “dying” at the end of the movie:
There’s a will and there’s an openness. And you could certainly interpret that ending in different ways. We’re all going to take a tiny rest here and then scratch at ideas about whether there’s a credible way to get into five. But there’s no guarantee.
How Lionsgate, Chad Stahelski, and Keanu Reeves could continue the story is anyone’s guess at this point. There was an alternate ending for John Wick: Chapter 4 that would've heavily implied that Wick lived, but test audiences were not about it and the producers went with the original idea for the finished product. They could branch off from that if the movie ends up happening.
As for now, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with John Wick 5. In the meantime, though, there is still the Ballerina spinoff, the upcoming Continental TV show, and all sorts of major releases on the 2023 movie schedule to keep us busy while we wait.
