It’s been five months since John Wick: Chapter 4, so it’s safe to say openly at this point (although here’s a SPOILER WARNING for due diligence) that the 2023 new movie release seemingly concludes the story of Keanu Reeves’ title assassin for good. The fourth John Wick movie ends with Ian McShane’s Winston and Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King visited the character’s grave, so one would think the John Wick film series is over now, right? Not necessarily, as John Wick: Chapter 5 remains an ongoing topic of conversation, and the latest has come in from director Chad Stahelski on the prospects of such a project.
Stahelski stopped by the Happy Sad Confused podcast to chat about his work on the John Wick movies, among other topics, with host Josh Horowitz. Like Reeves, the filmmaker has been part of John Wick since the beginning, having co-directed the first movie with David Leitch and helmed the following three installments solo. So if anyone would know if John Wick: Chapter 5 was happening, it’d be him, but here’s what Stahelski had to say about if this hypothetical movie will move forward:
Yeah, Keanu and I have talked. Keanu, if you ask him right now, ‘Would you do John Wick 5?’ He’d be, ‘Fuck yeah’. But then he’d look and go, ‘Well, what is it? I have no f--king idea.’ That’s all. Believe me. It’s not like, ‘We’re going to figure it out today.’ Like, look man, we’re going to do our other stuff for a little bit, but if I was driving in the car or if I was walking the dog and an idea hit me, within 30 seconds I’d be on the phone to Keanu and we’d be riffing.
Initially John Wick: Chapter 5 was a sure thing, as it was announced in August 2020 that it and Chapter 4 were going to shoot back-to-back. However, by March 2021, Lionsgate moved forward with Chapter 4 as a standalone production, leaving Chapter 5’s fate in question. Naturally talk about what’s happening with John Wick 5 have kicked up a notch since Chapter 4 arrived, but as Stahelski laid out in this latest interview, not only do he and Reeves not have any concrete ideas on what to do for another sequel, they’re going to focus on other projects for the time being.
Lionsgate is certainly game for John Wick: Chapter 5 to happen, with Joe Drake, the studio’s president, saying that there’s a “will” and “openness” to it, albeit “no guarantee.” Considering that Chapter 4 was not only critically well received like its predecessors, but is also the highest-grossing entry yet with $432.2 million worldwide, you can’t fault the studio executive for wanting to keep this action-packed ride going. Maybe that day will come, maybe it won’t, but for now, Chad Stahelski is content to direct his filmmaking skills to other things, including the Rainbow Six movie, the long-awaited Highlander reboot and a film adaptation of Ghosts of Tsushima.
The good news is even with John Wick: Chapter 5’s uncertain fate, the John Wick franchise itself isn’t going anywhere. Next month will see the release of The Continental, the 1970s-set event series following a young Winston that will be available for Peacock subscribers to stream. Then Ballerina will come out in June 2024, and Keanu Reeves will reprise John in the spinoff since it takes place between Chapter 3: Parabellum and 4.
