John Wick: Chapter 4 director Chad Stahelski revealed his thoughts on the idea of doing a John Wick 5.
The Keanu Reeves-starring action movie franchise is riding another wave of positive sentiment after the release of Chapter 4; however, the future of the series seems a bit murky.
The world of John Wick is set to expand very soon with a series coming to Peakcock this fall and a spin-off film led by Ana De Armas set for a 2024 release, but John Wick 5 remains a big question mark.
Stahelski looks to have a list of dream actors for a future fifth movie, the director has also publicly stated that he plans on "giv[ing] John Wick a rest" for a while after Reeves' beloved big-screen assassin seemingly bit the dust at the end of the latest bullet-time blockbuster.
Chad Stahelski on a Potential John Wick 5
Speaking exclusively with The Direct's Klein Felt, John Wick: Chapter 4 director Chad Stahelski shared his thoughts on doing a potential John Wick 5.
When asked about a fifth movie in the Keanu Reeves-led series, Stahelski noted that "it's a business," and "when you have something successful, yeah, of course, you want to keep doing it:"
"Look, I mean, this in a good way, it's a business. When you have something successful, yeah, of course, you want to keep doing it. But it's very easy to be repetitive. The trick is how you be repetitive with individuality. How do you put your authorship or your agency into something that's obviously been done three times before?"
He said he has been incredibly honored "people want more" from something he helped create:
"That's incredibly flattering. You have to be incredibly humble and go, ‘Thank you.’ And that's our response, ‘Thank you so much. Thank you so much for offering. Thank you so much for wanting it. Thank you so much for everything.’"
The filmmaker added that he "wouldn't mind doing [John Wick 5]," but also feels like "[they] feel like [they] ended it" with Chapter 4:
"The real question you ask yourself is not, ‘Do I want it?’ Yes, I wouldn't mind doing it. We just tried to knock it out of the park. We tried to put everything on the table, take nothing, and leave it all. Like, ‘Fuck it, every idea. We're not saving anything. We're not trying to build. Just everything you got, leave it there.’
We feel we put everything we had into 'John Wick 4,' and we feel we completed the cycle. We feel like we ended it. So, we feel like, ‘You know, that was a great way to wrap up the previous three films and the fourth and deliver something satisfying and fun.’"
Not to say it couldn't be done, Stahelski did make sure to mention the "bookcases and shelves of notebooks with hundreds of ideas" behind him during the conversation, but he just does not feel ready to do a Chapter 5 today:
"Right now, if you put a gun in my head, you might as well shoot me. Because I'm kind of fried. But it doesn't mean… Like if you look behind there are bookcases and shelves of notebooks with hundreds of ideas for other set pieces and stuff. If I wake up tomorrow and there's an idea to entertain the audience that we feel is really gonna deliver and not be just a cash grab. Yeah, I'd research it and go down that road. I just, I don't have that today."
On the conversations he has had with John Wick studio Lionsgate, he remarked that "the answer is, yes, we'd love to work together again," he just doesn't "know how yet:"
"So how we leave it is like, ‘Look, the answer is, yes, we'd love to work together again, but we just don't know how yet. We don't know the why. We don't know the how. We don't know the where. So let's keep it on the table and we'll give it a think. Let's just take a moment and be happy that we didn't screw up too badly on the last one.’"
And Stahelski has no lack of projects to focus on without John Wick in the title, mentioning his upcoming adaptation of PlayStation's Ghost of Tsushima and a Highlander reboot:
"The fact that I'm attached to great projects like 'Ghost Of Tsushima' is amazing. The fact that I'm still trying to figure out ways to work out a way to bring 'Highlander' to fruition again in a meaningful sense. I'm fortunate enough to be attached to 'Rainbow Six' with Michael B Jordan, which is fantastic. I have 'Shibumi' over at Warner Bros. which is literally my favorite book of all time.
And then we have a few TV shows we're trying to get off. I love Sebastian de Castell's book series, 'Spellslinger' that we have. We have Jeremy Robinson's 'Nemesis' because I'm a Kaiju martial art fan, and that's one of the best Kaiju books I've ever read, and I'm a sucker for that genre."
The John Wick filmmaker lamented that "these are all things that I love" and even if he can get one of them made, "that'd be fantastic:"
"These are all things that I love, and as long as I know I love them, I'm gonna push hard for them. If I can get them all before my time is up, that'd be fantastic.
But if I can even get one of the things I just mentioned, I'd be a very proud filmmaker, so we'll see."
Will There Be a John Wick 5?
The more director Chad Stahelski talks about the idea of John Wick 5, the less and less it feels like it is going to come any time soon. Not to say it will not come at all, it is just a matter of if Stahelski feels that spark of inspiration for the character yet again.
And with the ending of John Wick: Chapter 4 coming with its own sense of finality, if the series were to end here there would not be too many hanging loose threads.
One thing that is clear is that Stahelski only wants to work on projects he is vehemently passionate about. That is one of the reasons he would not want to tackle something in the world of Marvel for example.
Even Lionsgate (the studio behind John Wick) has talked about a "rest" being taken for Keanu Reeves' action hero. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president Joe Drake said after some time away they will "scratch at ideas" for a potential fifth Wick film, "but there’s no guarantee.”
Whether John Wick 5 happens or not, Chad Stahelski and the entire John Wick team can rest easy knowing they made something that people love.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is playing in theaters now.
