Lionsgate‘s motion picture group chair Joe Drake teased development of a fifth movie in the studio’s John Wick franchise Thursday during a Q4 earnings call that has fans abuzz.
“What is official is that, as you know, Ballerina is the first spinoff that comes out next year. We’re in development on three others, including five and including the television series, The Continental, which will be airing soon,” he said. “We’re building out the world and when that 5 movie comes, it will be organic — will be organically grown out of how we’re starting to tell those stories. But you can rely on a regular cadence of John Wick.”
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The March 24 release of the Chad Stahelski-directed John Wick: Chapter 4 was another hit for the assassin franchise starring Keanu Reeves, topping $363 million globally. Its success instantly raised questions about the potential for a fifth film that reps from the studio and the director himself agreed was on the table.
“It’s very flattering for them to come back and, you know, say, ‘We want more,’ and it’s not just a cash grab. It’s legitimately, the audience wants more,” Stahelski said following Chapter 4′s release in an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Behind the Screen podcast series. “I think we all need that little bit of time to go, ‘Whew. Let’s see what’s next.’ … If Keanu and I, a few months from now, sit down at a whiskey bar in Japan again and go, ‘Yep, we’ll never do another one of those,’ and then all of a sudden go, ‘Yeah, but I got an idea,’ we’re open to it.” (Spoilers from the fourth film are ahead.)
In Chapter 4 — with a cast including Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Skarsgard and Donnie Yen — Wick uncovers a path to defeating the High Table, a journey that sets in motion the events of the film and its climatic dual at Paris’ Sacré Coeur.
The movie concluded with McShane’s Winston and Fishburne’s Bowery King standing at a grave bearing Wick’s name. What really happened? We’ll have to wait to find out.
