You can’t keep a guy like John Wick down. As many shady underworld figures have learned to their cost, Baba Yaga simply keeps coming back. Except, J
You can’t keep a guy like John Wick down. As many shady underworld figures have learned to their cost, Baba Yaga simply keeps coming back. Except, John Wick: Chapter 4 seemed to somewhat close the book on Keanu Reeves’ bullet-spraying assassin. In the fourquel’s final reel, Wick seemed to succumb to his injuries in Paris, with audiences shown his tombstone for good measure – though, technically, we didn’t actually see the character die. Now, we know he will indeed be back in the recently-announced Chapter 5. But according to director Chad Stahelski, there’ll be more to Wick’s return than meets the eye.
“The saga of John Wick was pretty wrapped up,” he admits to Empire. “So the only way to do a 5 is to have a new story that involves John Wick. It’s not a continuation, with the High Table. John dealt with his grief. It will be really different, and everybody [will] see the trailer and go, ‘Holy fuck… I gotta see that.’” Of course we will – it’s a John Wick movie.
For now, there’s plenty more from the Wick-iverse arriving in the meantime – not just Ballerina (set after Chapter 3, and due to feature an appearance from Wick himself) and Donnie Yen’s Caine spin-off movie, but also an animated prequel film about Wick’s initial escape from the assassin game, and the Under The High Table TV series. Those latter two in particular will lay the groundwork for where John’s story goes next. “The John Wick TV show and the animation are big priorities,” confirms Stahelski. “Our idea is to try some things and explore some threads and use those two properties to catapult us forward into the ideas for John 5.” Time to schedule in an appointment with the Sommelier, then.
Read Empire’s full story on Ballerina, and the future of John Wick, in the Jurassic World Rebirth issue –on sale Thursday 8 May. Pre-order a copy online here. Ballerina comes to UK cinemas from 6 June.
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