Today, Lionsgate had their big turn at CinemaCon in Las Vegas where they announced a bunch of new projects and updates on previously known ones. They’ve now revealed three big “John Wick” film projects are in the works with Donnie Yen directing a “Caine” spinoff shooting in Hong Kong later this year, a minor update on “John Wick 5,” and a new animated movie that will explore Wick’s “impossible task” that granted him his freedom from The High Table and his adoptative family, the Ruska Roma.
The untitled animated film hails from Shannon Tindle (creator and writer of “Kubo & The Two Strings”) with a script written by Vanessa Taylor (“Uglies”), the latter co-writing the Best Picture Oscar winner “The Shape of Water” with Guillermo del Toro.
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Chad Stahelski, who will produce the prequel animated pic, said in an official statement, “I’ve always been fascinated with anime. It has always been a huge influence on me, especially with the ‘John Wick’ series. To have the opportunity to develop a ‘John Wick’ anime seems to be the perfect progression for the John Wick world. I feel John Wick is the perfect property for this medium—anime holds the potential to expand our world, our characters, and our action in ways unimaginable before.”
Fans will remember that John’s impossible task allowed him to leave his life as an assassin to enjoy a peaceful life with his wife Helen before her death. After Helen’s passing, the underworld attempted to lure him back into the fray, as he gets revenge for the murder of his puppy and his muscle car being stolen by a punk gangster linked to a Russian syndicate that is now running crime in New York City.
Wick got help from the villain of the Italian crime syndicate (referred to as the Camorra) and eventual High Table member, Riccardo Scamarcio‘s Santino D’Antonio, and earned himself a marker from Wick that was cashed-in, allowing him to complete his deadly mission. So, in theory, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Santino’s return or other Wick franchise characters in animated form.
That’s not it, as they’ve reiterated that “John Wick 5” is officially in development with Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves participating as producers alongside Thunder Road‘s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee.
Lionsgate’s Adam Fogelson said, “Keanu, Chad, Basil, and Erica would not return unless they had something truly phenomenal and fresh to say with these characters and this world. We can’t wait for audiences to see where the journey takes us next.”
Longtime franchise producers Iwanyk and Lee added, “It’s so important to get this story right and give John’s story the proper next step. It’s exciting to take the first step on that road.”
“John Wick: Under The High Table,” a new series, is also in the works from the “Wick” team.
Details about “John Wick 5” aren’t being made public (Wick supposedly “died” off-screen in the most recent movie and appears in “Ballerina” as that is set before the events of “John Wick 4”), but Stahelski and Reeves have said in the past that they wouldn’t want to return for a fifth installment until they really got a good idea to execute, and this sounds like we’re getting closer to that goal. Previously, the studio’s aim was to have Stahelski shoot both “John Wick 4” and “John Wick 5” back-to-back, but those plans changed, and we only got a single film.
It remains to be seen if Stahelski will be directing the fifth film as he’s expected to shoot Lionsgate’s “Highlander” reboot next and has a multitude of other projects on the horizon, like a film adaptation of the PlayStation exclusive samurai video game, “Ghost of Tsushima,” at Sony Pictures.
The John Wick films combine everything I love about movies – iconic characters, unique worlds, stunning cinematography, and mind-blowing action. I’m thrilled to collaborate with these brilliant folks to tell an emotional and action-packed love story in a way only animation can.… https://t.co/PICCV5TuGh
— Shannon Tindle (@ShannonTindle_1) April 1, 2025
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