To date, the John Wick franchise has spawned three movies and just two years from now, a fourth will hit theatres. Outside of the main series, two other projects are currently in active development; first, you’ve got Ballerina, a spinoff film based on the Russian ballerina assassins introduced in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Then you’ve got The Continental, a television series from STARZ that will serve as a prequel to the filmseries. Though screenwriter Derek Kolstad created the Wick franchise and continues to write the main series, he’s not heavily involved in either of the spinoffs, nor does he plan to pitch any additional projects that’d help build out the world of John Wick (Keanu Reeves) even further.
In a recent chat with ComicBook.com, Kolstad tells us he’s perfectly content with writing one or two more main Wick flicks before moving on to other areas in his career. “Not really,” says about whether he has the desire to pitch additional spinoffs. “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.”
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Kolstad adds, “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 f-cking joy.”
Though the writer has an executive producer credit on The Continental, it’s strictly in a non-writing capacity. The writer says he isn’t involved with the upcoming series, allowing showrunner Chris Collins (The Wire) space to breathe within the world of the assassin hotel.
“I’m not involved with The Continental that much, if at all, in a non-writing EP, because when John Wick came out, I’m a baby writer,” Kolstad reminds us. “That was my first theatrical. I had done some direct to DVD and that kind of stuff beforehand, but I know very little about that one and yet I give it my blessing, because how f-cking cool is that? When you think that you can, in the television space, have a playground that characters from its own space can enter and exit at any given time, depending on the strength of story, that’s awesome.”
All three John Wick movies are now available wherever movies are sold. John Wick: Chapter 4 is due out May 27, 2022 while Ballerina or The Continental have yet to set release dates.
