That’s right, Keanu Reeves will be reprising his role as the titular hitman in John Wick 4 and 5, which will be filmed back to back.
Lionsgate announced the news during an Aug. 6 earnings call, multiple outlets reported, with CEO John Feltheimer saying they were “busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theatres Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 & 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year.”
Perhaps the most exciting part of this announcement isn’t just that we’ll be getting another two John Wick movies, but that director Chad Stahelski is likely to remain heavily involved; he’s already signed on for John Wick 4, according to Screen Rant.
Considering that the two movies are being shot one after the other it stands to reason that Stahelski would take the lead on the fifth as well.
Stahelski’s career as a stuntman — including his time as Reeves’ stunt double in the Matrix — has had a lasting impact on his work as a director, and it’s evident in the hyper-stylized action that is the hallmark of the John Wick franchise.
On a typical set, the director will be in charge of the actors, dialogue, and plot development, while the action sequences are handled separately, effectively siloing these two portions of the film.
With the John Wick series, “they’re doing the whole thing, and it’s rare that a stuntman is a major movie director,” Taran Butler, a professional shooter who helped train the actors in marksmanship for the series, told Task & Purpose in 2019.
“That’s why their action is so seamless throughout the movie.”
The John Wick series is as much a story of revenge for a man’s slain dog, his wrecked car, and his destroyed house, as it is a testament to his grief over the loss of his wife, and his forced return to a world of mayhem and murder. Additionally, each John Wick flick is a blood-splattered love note to suave suits, beautiful firearms, and weapons of opportunity (See: “He killed three men with a fucking pencil.”)
At the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, our bespoke-suited assassin has fallen from grace, and several stories from a building, and is given refuge underground in the sewers by the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne). The implicit suggestion at the end is that Wick will join the Bowery, a fiefdom in New York’s sewers and tunnels, as they fight against the High Table — the leaders of a sprawling organization of assassins and guns-for-hire who deal out death and violence in exchange for gold coins, like snappily-dressed pirates.
It’s unclear exactly what we’ll be getting with the fourth and fifth installments of the series, but it’s possible they’ll be the final chapters in Wick’s story.
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