While we’re excited to see where Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski go with John Wick: Chapter 4, it sounds like the current plan is to end the franchise with John Wick: Chapter 5 according to creator and screenwriter Derek Kolstad.
Derek spoke with Comic Book about how far he sees they could go with John Wick sequels when he offered up this comment. Suggesting that Keanu and others might be done after the fourth or fifth film.
KOLSTAD: “I think the other thing, too, is to his [Keanu Reeves’] credit and to his career, he’s done very few sequels. He found something very special in John Wick that is very important to him, that is both spoken and unspoken. I don’t know how many more there will be, but I think the plan right now is, at the very least, four to five.”
Most recently Derek joined the writing team for Marvel Studios’ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which is expected to air sometime soon on Disney+ (a new official date has yet to be announced by Disney/Marvel).
Other projects Kolstad has been working on include a Hitman series adaptation, a Just Cause feature film adaptation, a thriller titled Acolyte, another titled Booker, the Bob Odenkirk action film Nobody, and is teaming up with James Wan for the sci-fi film Hunting Season.
John Wick: Chapter 4 was expected to begin shooting once Keanu Reeves completed the shoot for Matrix 4, however, the German leg of production halted when the COVID-19 pandemic closed-down a majority of film and television projects across the globe.
The fourth installment had been given a new release date of May 27th, 2022 by Lionsgate pushing the film’s release by an entire year, but when John Wick: Chapter 4 will ultimately begin filming isn’t set-in-stone at the moment.
We already have an idea where the next film will take us as John and the Bowery King seemingly join forces to start a war against the leadership of The High Table, the group of mysterious figure-heads that oversee the world of assassins and attempt to keep an order to it with their rules.
Ending with a fifth installment wouldn’t be such a terrible thing as Lionsgate is flushing-out the world with the Starz series The Continental and the spinoff feature film Ballerina directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard). It’s possible to find a way to move things forward with existing or new characters.
Kolstad also revealed to Comic Book he isn’t heavily involved with the two spinoffs and isn’t likely to pitch future ones.
KOLSTAD: “Because when you look at having been a part of establishing and building out the foundation of this world, you sign that first contract, I’m a nobody. I am part and parcel with both a part of it and not, and yet you just want to give it your blessing and have them play and have them play well. I’m not like a George Lucas in this capacity.”
“I am the guy who wrote the spec that got made and I was blessed enough to be part of three, and hope, in a certain respect, to be a part elsewhere. The studios reminding me again and again that it’s become bigger than me, but that is as iconic a studio line as you can hear. And yet, it’s been a fucking joy.”
I think we’ll have to wait and see what their final plan is for John Wick and if Chapter 4 allows them to even make a fifth film.
