John Wick is celebrating its tenth anniversary, as the first movie debuted in theaters back in 2014. Since then, the assassin-centered action thriller has grown into a full-fledged franchise, with several spinoffs announced beyond The Continental and Ballerina. One of these will be an animated film, which, according to Stahelski, could reveal what the "impossible task" was that John completed in exchange for his retirement. As for the fifth installment? It might still happen. Stahelski already has "three or four ideas" for it, but he doesn’t want to simply “outdo” John Wick 4—instead, he would take the story in a new direction.
The director, and now also the creative producer of the franchise, gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter on the occasion of this milestone anniversary. Naturally, the topic came up of whether there could be a sequel to John Wick: Chapter 4, despite its almost perfect—though perhaps somewhat ambiguous—ending. Stahelski mentioned that he couldn’t envision a better, more complete conclusion to John’s story. However, he has thought about continuing the story, especially since Lionsgate, the studio behind the franchise, is very keen on it.
"Sometimes we develop ideas just as an exercise, but is there a chance for John Wick 5? Absolutely, whether it’s driven by financial reasons or creative motivation. Of course, there’s a possibility, but we’re just thinking things over. Oh my God! In the last three years, I’ve already come up with three or four alternative ideas for John Wick 5. These were different concepts on how to extend the story, but I mostly see them as mental exercises. In our industry, you always hear that something is in 'active development.' They say, 'The project is in active development.' And yes, that’s true, if you count me and Keanu tossing around all sorts of nonsense when we sit down to chat, or writing something with Mike Finch or my partner Alex.
We put things on paper, come up with great sequences. It’s a great practice, and we draw from that later, using certain ideas. So, we do have some great ideas, but they might not end up as part of the main John Wick storyline. It might not be what you’d expect. If we ever do it, if Keanu and I think we’ve come up with something brilliant that doesn’t feel forced, that’ll be great. But I feel like we’ve hit the peak with the fourth installment. Or at least I have. [...] It’s a complete story. When I rewatch it now, it makes me happy, but we wouldn’t try to top it. We wouldn’t want to force something. So, we’d launch a completely new storyline," Stahelski explained.
The interviewer asked if this would be more of an epilogue. Stahelski didn’t directly answer but instead started talking about the upcoming animated prequel, which is currently in focus: "We’re currently deep into developing the animated John Wick film. It’s a prequel to the movies, and it’s great. It’s going to be fun since we’re doing it in a different medium." The Hollywood Reporter journalist asked if this would depict the impossible task that Viggo, the villain of the first movie, assigned to John, which allowed him to retire. Stahelski’s response:
"Yes, partly. You’re on the right track, but this is going to be an animated adventure. It’s made to entertain. Don’t associate it with the kind of prequels or sequels you’ve seen in other franchises. We’re not thinking along those lines! We just want to entertain. We want to have fun with the Wick world, which we’ve already concluded, so now we’re going back in time and using a different medium to do so.
That’s why Under the High Table, the TV series developed by showrunner Rob Levine, is also so much fun. It’s set in the John Wick universe and focuses on the side characters who appeared alongside John Wick. So, in these spinoffs, we can explore things we didn’t have time for in the main films. [...] In the animated film, we can let loose a little, have some fun, and be more explicit in storytelling and world-building, much like in the TV series."
Chad Stahelski also mentioned last year that he had many ideas, but even with Lionsgate’s insistence that a fifth film is in "active development," he wouldn’t rush into making John Wick 5. He also spoke about how there were many debates during the filming of the first movie about not wanting to shave Keanu Reeves’ beard.
