It looks like we will be getting more of John Wick in the coming years. After what seemed to be the final outing of Keanu Reeves as the master assassin in John Wick: Chapter 4, the series director Chad Stahelski reveals he has more in store for the franchise.
In a recent interview with Inverse, Stahelski reveals his approach to the fifth movie with Reeves, saying that a return isn’t off the table. However, the director shared that it is not something definite yet. He also revealed that he has ideas for five more installments all the way up to John Wick: Chapter 9.
“I have notebooks and notebooks of s–t behind me, John Wicks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. We have ideas for days,” Stahelski said. “We just don’t have the story locked. I have no interest in doing the cash grab of bringing John Wick back for something. Is he a character I like? Of course. And if I did a couple of John Wick movies, great. Keanu would do one again in a second if we had a good story. We leave that open-ended. I know that the studio would love us to say we have another one.”
He adds, “Keanu and I are always interested in that, but we leave it hanging out there a little bit to figure out if we have something that we’d want to watch. Second, we have a studio that’s very enthusiastic and not just financially motivated, but they’re just interested in seeing what we could do with it. So, they’ve been super cool of us this year about branching off.”
The director acknowledged the multiple spin-offs happening in the John Wick universe. The Continental premiered last month on Paramount+ while the Ana de Armas-led Ballerina is set to debut next year. Reeves will be in the movie but said that he will just have a small part in it. Stahelski, on the other hand, is also on board as a producer.
“I know the term is “spin-offs” or “ancillaries” or whatever you want to call it,” Stahelski shared. “Keanu and I both went back, and we all said, ‘Look, we have ideas for the John Wick world, other characters that aren’t John Wick-centric. Would you guys be interested in exploring that?’ And they were super cool, and they said, ‘Yes, we’d be very interested in that.’ Characters that weren’t in any of the movies that had fallen to the sidelines because they just didn’t fit in our storylines, and some existing characters that we’d like to see other things.”
Some fans have been asking for a spin-off film featuring Donnie Yen’s Caine while others think that Halle Berry’s Sofia should get her own movie within the universe. There has also been a clamor for more of Rina Sawayama’s Akira in future installments.
We may just be seeing the tip of the iceberg with John Wick. Hopefully, Ballerina will be successful enough to warrant follow-ups and expand the world of John Wick a bit more. Maybe we will see John Wick catch up to The Fast and Furious franchise in terms of movie count.
