Are They Making ‘John Wick 5’?

The following publish incorporates SPOILERS for John Wick: Chapter 4.

When John Wick: Chapter 4 was formally introduced again in the summertime of 2020, it was introduced with the subsequent sequel, John Wick: Chapter 5, which was supposedly going to be shot back-to-back with half 4.

“We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 & 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year,” stated Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer on the time.

But now John Wick: Chapter 4 is right here (Covid-19 delayed issues considerably) and not solely is Chapter 5 was not shot with it, for those who’ve seen Chapter 4  one other sequel is, at finest, an extended shot. That’s as a result of — right here is your final likelihood to bail earlier than spoilers — John Wick: Chapter 4 concludes with John Wick’s loss of life. The movie’s remaining scene is a funeral the place Ian McShane’s Winston, Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, and John Wick’s canine all mourn at his grave aspect.

So what occurred to the plans for 2 back-to-back sequels? Franchise director Chad Stahelski just lately defined the change in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “The real reason we didn’t do four and five together was because I raised my hand,” Stahelski revealed. “I even went to Keanu and said, ‘I’m just not good enough to do four and five. I’m good enough to do one. I can make a difference between three and four, but I’m not good enough to somehow magically get better in the middle of the process between four and five.’ The reason these movies keep getting better is because we keep getting better, but I need the time to go to school and get better. So that’s the real reason why we divided it up at the time. I’m not a good enough director to deliver two uniquely special experiences.”

READ MORE: How John Wick: Chapter 4 Pulled Off Its Greatest Action Sequence

Stahelski says as he and the John Wick artistic crew had been growing the fourth film, they realized a technique they might make it totally different and higher than the earlier movies was to offer it a conclusion — i.e., the title character’s heroic loss of life. At first, Lionsgate’s response to that thought was, in Stahelski’s phrases, “Are you f—ing insane?” Eventually, they warmed to giving John Wick a correct sendoff.

But for those who’ve seen the movie, that we see John Wick’s funeral, not essentially his loss of life. It’s not completely implausible that the character may need faked his demise to lastly get some peace and quiet. Stahelski additionally instructed THR that they did shoot a model that much more strongly hinted at John’s survival, however {that a} take a look at viewers “revolted pretty hard about [it].” So the filmmakers caught with the extra “mysterious” model that you simply see onscreen — which nonetheless features a shot of John’s canine trying up at one level to put simply the tiniest little bit of doubt about John’s destiny within the viewers’s thoughts.

Whether they ever make a John Wick: Chapter 5 or not, the franchise will proceed. Keanu Reeves has already filmed a cameo function in Ballerina, a derivative that expands on a subplot from John Wick: Chapter 3 about ballerinas who moonlight as assassins. That film, which stars Ana de Armas, doesn’t have an official launch date but, nevertheless it was largely shot within the fall of final 12 months, so it would seemingly premiere later in 2023 or in early 2024.