After being greenlit and then canceled, concerns from Reeves, and hesitancy from the series’ director, the future of John Wick 5 is uncertain.
Every John Wick movie has ended on a cliffhanger and teased a sequel, but despite the franchise’s phenomenal success, John Wick 5 isn’t guaranteed. Ever since the series started with the original modest action movie, it has built a huge and fantastical world full of spectacular events and unrivaled globetrotting action sequences. Each consecutive release gets bigger than the last, with the box office gross of each film doubling its predecessor. And relative to their budgets, few other franchises have been as successful. As Keanu Reeves is known for performing his own stunts (and enjoying it), it could seem safe to assume the series will go on forever.
However, though John Wick: Chapter 4 has gotten great reviews, John Wick 5 still hasn’t been greenlit. While it has become a trend for movie studios to announce several sequels all at once, Lionsgate is seemingly taking it one film at a time with the assassin series. After originally having been greenlit and then canceled, concerns from Reeves, and hesitancy from the series’ director, Chad Stahelski, the prospects for John Wick 5 couldn’t be more uncertain. There are only so many beatings John Wick can take, and the series has to end eventually, but ending at John Wick: Chapter 4 feels a little premature.
John Wick 4 & 5 Were Originally Supposed To Be Filmed Back-To-Back (What Changed?)
So many franchises have shot two movies back-to-back, such as the Matrix series and the Kill Bill movies, and the original plan was that John Wick 4 & 5 would be shot back-to-back too. Stahelski noted that the idea was essentially dropped so that each movie would be better. The director explained, “other franchises that have tried it, they just feel like the same thing done again, right? Like there’s no new influence.” Stahelski’s comments make perfect sense, as quality often drops when creators attempt to work on so many different things at once.
As the John Wick series is known for embracing other countries’ cultures and incorporating new types of martial arts into their action sequences, the break was the best thing for the franchise. However, given John Wick: Chapter 4’s massive 170-minute runtime, it is a possibility that the narratives of the two sequels were combined into one longer film. The new movie covers a lot of ground, literally, as it takes place in Berlin, Paris, Japan, Casablanca, and, of course, New York, and that’s a lot of locations for just one movie. John Wick: Chapter 4 could be an amalgam of the best ideas Stahelski and company had for both films.
Keanu Reeves Says John Wick 5 Isn’t Guaranteed
Even despite the original plan to film John Wick: Chapter 4 and John 5 back-to-back, a drastic change must have happened during the production of the new movie, as Reeves explained that the fifth John Wick movie isn’t guaranteed. The actor explained, “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.” Reeves’s comments could mean that John Wick: Chapter 4 breaks a long-running tradition in the John Wick series.
While all of the films in the series end on massive cliffhangers that hint at what’s to come in a sequel, Reeves’s comments hint that John Wick: Chapter 4 ends definitively without any sort of cliffhanger. However, the actor is seemingly suggesting that John Wick 5’s greenlight depends on John Wick: Chapter 4’s box office success. The action series has surely proved its guaranteed success at this point, as each consecutive release has made around double the previous movie, so it comes as a surprise that Lionsgate wants to wait and see how John Wick: Chapter 4 performs before giving John Wick 5 the go-ahead.
Director Chad Stahelski Isn’t Certain About Making John Wick 5
Stahelski has wavered about John Wick 5, and his recent comments raise concerns. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stahelski mentioned that when doing press in Tokyo, he and Keunu will “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.” Even earlier it was revealed that Stahelski wants a break from John Wick. The director explained, “I’m always saying, ‘This is my last one, this will never happen again.’ And I’ll say that now: This is my last one,” which definitively answers the question.
John Wick 5 can still happen without Stahelski in the director’s chair with some other filmmaker, but the movie wouldn’t be half as great if Stahelski wasn’t on set. The reason why the John Wick action sequences are so great is because of Stahelski’s decades-long career as a stunt coordinator, and other directors simply don’t have that experience. However, Stahelski has other just as exciting projects lined up, such as a Ghost of Tsushima movie adaptation, that could make up for his John Wick 5 absence. Either way, it’s unnerving to think the continuation of a soon-to-be billion-dollar franchise hinges on a couple of 20-year-old whiskeys.
John Wick 4’s Reviews & Box Office Projections Suggest John Wick 5 Will Happen
While it isn’t impossible, it’s extremely unlikely that John Wick: Chapter 4 will fail at the box office, and it’s projected to have the biggest opening weekend of the franchise yet. That’s only cemented by the fact that critics think it’s the best John Wick outing yet, as it sits at a hugely impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. The series is such a hot property that there’s no way the studio would shelve it. Even in the unlikely event that the film underperforms, Lionsgate would still want to go ahead with John Wick 5, albeit with a shorter runtime and reduced budget.
Lionsgate has even made some huge moves to expand the universe, as an Ana de Armas-starring spin-off, Ballerina, is in production, and the Peacock series The Continental, which follows Winston in the 1970s, is in development too. And most importantly, Reeves will appear in both projects, acting as something of an authentic stamp on the John Wick-adjacent shows. Though Stahelski needs a break, John Wick: Chapter 5 will be thrown into development with or without him, or the studio could admirably wait until the filmmaker is ready to return. In many ways, it feels like the world of John Wick is still in its infancy, and John Wick 5 is an inevitability.
Source: screenrant.com
