We’ve said this before, but the “John Wick” franchise is a rare beast. Each of the films outperformed the previous one at the box office. Not only that, but the reviews kept being more and more glowing. And even though “John Wick: Chapter 4” seemed to close the door on the franchise, people are craving more Keanu Reeves in the role. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done for director Chad Stahelski.
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Speaking with THR, as part of a 10-year retrospective on the “John Wick” franchise, director Chad Stahelski talked about the difficulty of moving ahead with a fifth film. For those who don’t know, Keanu Reeves’ character appeared to die at the end of ‘Chapter 4.’ As you might suspect, that makes a “John Wick 5” increasingly difficult to make because you have to seemingly resurrect the character.
However, Stahelski feels like there’s an even more pressing problem with the idea of a “John Wick 5.” He thinks that the fourth film serves as his magnum opus—the epitome of a ‘Wick’ film.
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“The honest truth is you don’t [top ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’]. You simply don’t. There’s no topping what we did. That’s the end. That’s the deal. That’s what we found closure for,” said Stahelski. “Look, sometimes, we’ll keep things in development. Sometimes, we’ll use development as an exercise, but is there an opportunity to do [‘John Wick 5’]? Of course, there is, whether it’s for money or for creativity. Jesus, in the last three years, I’ve already had three or four versions of a ‘John Wick 5.’ They were different ways to crack the story, but it’s almost a mental exercise for me.”
Stahelski added, “It would not be part of that [‘John Wick: Chapter 4’] storyline. It would not be what you would think it is. As far as [‘John Wick: Chapter 4’], we’ve peaked. At least, I have. That’s my apex. We ended it. It’s a complete story. I watch it now, and I feel very happy about it, but we wouldn’t try to outdo it. We wouldn’t try to add on to that. It’d have to be a completely different storyline.”
Does this mean “John Wick 5” is never going to happen? Clearly not. All it takes is a great idea for it to happen. Lionsgate would definitely embrace the idea of a fifth film, as the studio would obviously love to continue with a box office powerhouse franchise. But as of now, it seems as if “John Wick 5” is just an idea and not at all concrete.
In the meantime, Stahelski is still breathing life into the ‘Wick’ universe by expanding with spinoffs. We already know “Ballerina” is arriving next year. Not only that, there’s still development on a Caine film (based on a character from ‘Chapter 4’), as well as an anime and another TV series titled “Under the High Table.”