At face value, John Wick doesn’t exactly scream being adaptable into a musical. After all, the first movie is about a retired assassin who hunts down the criminals who killed his dog any anyone connected to them; does that sound like a story worth singing out? Well, thanks to a new mashup, maybe we should reconsider if Keanu Reeves’ action franchise should get the musical treatment.
The John Wick movies are distributed by Lionsgate, the same studio that delivered La La Land to the masses in 2016. Over on the Lionsgate Instagram page, there’s a video of some John Wick: Chapter 2 snippets playing to the tune of “Another Day of Sun” from La La Land’s opening scene, and it’s actually a decent combination. See for yourself:
Look, I’m not saying that the John Wick film series needs to do a complete overhaul and embark down the musical route starting with John Wick: Chapter 5; that’s crazy talk! However, if there are any composers/lyricists out there, be it on Broadway, West End or anywhere else in the musical scene, who want to try their hand at adapting John Wick for the stage, this video presents a good case for making that happen. Sure, a John Wick musical couldn’t be as gory as the original movies, but it could still be pretty entertaining with the right choreography, set pieces, etc.
Besides, it’s not like adapting a non-musical movie into a musical is anything new. From Back to the Future to Mean Girls, there have been plenty of instances where creative minds have been hit with just the right amount of inspiration and adapted a cinematic story with song and dance numbers. And for those of you who think John Wick is simply too violent to even warrant consideration for this, there’s even been an Evil Dead musical, albeit done with a more comedic bent. There’s no reason heads couldn’t be put together to figure out a way to make John Wick happen on stage in a similar way.
For now though, the John Wick film series is still going strong. Not only did the latest entry, 2019’s Chapter 3 - Parabellum, earn positive critical reception like its predecessors, it’s also the most financially successful John Wick movie yet, having pulled in over $327 million worldwide. No plot details for John Wick: Chapter 4 have been revealed yet, but along with Keanu Reeves being joined again by Ian McShane, Lance Reddick and Laurence Fishburne (who called the script “really really cool”), the Chapter 4 cast also includes Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins, Clancy Brown and Marko Zaror.
John Wick: Chapter 4 has been pushed back to March 24, 2023, so keep visiting CinemaBlend for more updates about the movie. Along with John Wick: Chapter 5 also being greenlit, this franchise is expanding through the Ballerina spinoff that may Ana de Armas, as well as the Continental event series starring Mel Gibson and more that will air on Starz.
