9 Years Ago Today, the Best Action Movie Franchise of the 21st Century Was Confirmed (& It’s Getting Another Sequel)

Keanu Reeves is by all accounts a lovely man and a perpetually enjoyable screen presence, but like anyone else with a long career his has been susceptible to the ocean tides of success and lulls. The ’80s had winners like River’s Edge, Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure, and Parenthood but forgettable fare like The Prince of Pennsylvania and The Night Before, as well. Then he became an action star with Point Break but then was criticized for having been miscast in both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Much Ado About Nothing. But, in that sentence, we also see the first instance of a trend: It’s always an action movie that gives Reeves’ career a little wind in its sails. Point Break in 1991, Speed in 1994, The Matrix in 1999, and, most recently, John Wick in 2014.

The difference between John Wick and those other three is that it doesn’t have a high concept. There’s no computerized world, surfers wearing masks of dead presidents, or a bus with a bomb strapped to it. It’s just a man seeking revenge for his dog. That’s how it was marketed and that’s what it is. And, if one remembers seeing that first John Wick trailer, it did look like a one-off adventure. In fact, that’s how it played, with an ending that hand John find happiness again. But, three years later, John Wick turned into the John Wick franchise…and was all the better for it.

How Did Viewers Respond to John Wick: Chapter 2 and What Comes Next?

When it comes to the difference between John Wick and John Wick: Chapter 2, the most applicable word is scope. They’re largely the same, but instead of Wick hunting down those who wronged him we learn about the debts in this world of assassins and how one cannot refuse paying said debt. To that point, we get Wick going on a quest not for himself, but for another.

And it was clear that the enlarged scope was marketed well just as it was clear audiences had taken to the original film via streaming and physical home media, because the box office results surged. The first John Wick was made for at most $30 million, a modest price tag. It made $43 million domestically and another $43 million overseas. In other words, it wasn’t just a stateside attention-grabber.

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Cut to three years later and John Wick: Chapter 2, which was made for a still-modest $40 million, more than doubled its predecessor’s domestic haul to the tune of $92 million and nearly doubled its international haul to the tune of $82 million. That’s a massive jump, and it made clear that the IP was commercially viable as a franchise, which is the exact type of result studios love to see.

That upwards trend continued, too, with the third film making over $150 worldwide more than Chapter 2 while the fourth (and seemingly final) entry made about $119 million more than the third. So, it is on the surface perfectly understandable that Lionsgate wants more of these things, apparently unswayed by the unfortunate financial failure of Ballerina.

The question is, will it feel an organic continuation of the narrative? Because John Wick: Chapter 4 was initially supposed to be the end of the saga and that is exactly how it plays to the viewer. It would have been more intriguing to see the continued story of Eve Macarro, because Ballerina ends much the same way as John Wick: Chapter 2, with this world of assassins all moving their eyelines to be focused on her for a hefty reward.

The best idea moving forward is to have the film titled John Wick: Chapter 5, but feature Macarro as a supporting character. That would please Ballerina‘s fans and would incentivize those who missed it to finally give it a shot. Oddly enough, the main issue with Ballerina was the shoehorned-in inclusion of Wick. It was a logical move, to get more butts in the seats, but it didn’t pan out and ended up making the film’s third act feel occasionally clunky.

But the reverse of that situation would work in Chapter 5 because Wick’s story has largely been told. His war with the High Table is over, with the soldiers sent either home or to their graves. Faking his death and going about helping Macarro get out of her predicament could be his question if the fifth film, and there are worse plotlines to tackle than that. He knows her, he’s worked with her, and he feels some level of affection for her, otherwise he would have gunned her down when he was sent to do so by The Director.

Where would you like to see the John Wick franchise go from here? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!