While there’s no telling when or how, it looks like we’ll be seeing more of John Wick in the future. John Wick 4, the latest installment in the hit action film franchise starring Keanu Reeves, hit theaters on March 23 and wowed audiences with a story that seemingly brought the saga to a close. Although it seemed that the protagonist’s fate had been sealed in his latest film, an update has arrived from the president of Lionsgate that the journey of the iconic hitman Jardani Jovovich / John Wick is definitely not over.
You may also like: James Cameron is writing a new Terminator movie
During a fourth quarter 2023 earnings call from Lionsgate (via Comic Book), Joe Drake, head of the renowned film production company, confirmed that a fifth John Wick film is in the early stages of development. The executive first explained the following on the call:
Now we’re moving through that franchise, not just in the AAA video game space, but looking at what the regular cadence of spin-offs is, television is really growing that universe so that there’s a consistent cadence of a franchise that has a clear audience appetite.
Drake continued with the confirmation of the franchise projects that are on the way:
What is official is that, as you know, Ballerina is the first spin-off coming out next year. We are developing three more, including [John Wick 5] and including the television series, The Continental, which will air soon. So, we’re building the world and when those five movies come around, it’s going to be organic, it’s going to build organically out of how we start telling those stories. But you can rely on a regular John Wick cadence.
Do not miss: Barbie suffers an existential crisis in the new trailer for the film
With the confirmation of John Wick 5, fans will be starting to wonder what Wick’s fate really was in his most recent film, as while he made it clear to us to some degree that the character was dead, it seems like there’s a chance that that what died was his identity as the murderer and not him literally. Either way we’ll have to wait where the Ballerina spin-off and The Continental series are headed to get an idea of what we can expect for the new film installment.
Ballerina is a spin-off film in the John Wick franchise that centers on a trained-to-kill ballet dancer, played by Ana de Armas. The official synopsis does not give much information, only stating that it follows “a young murderer seeking revenge against the people who killed her family.” Fortunately, Keanu Reeves himself gave a more detailed description of the story while promoting John Wick 4 at Comic Con Experience 2022:
[Ella es una] woman going through very difficult circumstances and seeking revenge. Someone killed her father. Who could it be? So it’s her journey to really understand her past. She lost her father at a young age, and she doesn’t really know what happened. Except that someone broke into the house and killed her father, who had a tattoo. And as we know in John Wick, if you have a tattoo, something is up.
According to information from Collider, Ballerina will be directed by Len Wiseman from a script by Shay Hatten, and will also see the return of Keanu Reeves as John Wick and Ian McShane as Winston. Chad Stahelski, director of all the John Wick films, had the following to say to The Hollywood Reporter in a previous interview (via Comic Book):
have him [el director de Ballerina, Len Wiseman] on board and approaching some of the action design from a slightly different perspective, i.e. the settings, the character’s involvement, how and what he wants to do during the action sequences, makes it a bit fresh. So, we’re not copying ourselves over and over again with gun-fu or something. And because the character is different, we’re going to have a different take on things. But as for the level, the competition or the style of action? Yes. I plan to be there to help whenever I can. And our team of 87eleven specialists will be very active in helping Len with all of her action needs.
In case you missed it: Star Wars: Temuera Morrison will give life to Captain Rex in the Ahsoka Tano series
