John Wick’s Future Confirmed 3 Years After Iconic Keanu Reeves’ Hero “Death”

If you’re a big enough character and make enough money in Hollywood, even the most verifiable death can be reversed, so when John Wick‘s fate was left somewhat unclear at the end of John Wick 4, it never felt truly like the end. Indeed, director Chad Stahelski spoke in 2024 to say that “if we wake up tomorrow and there’s a good idea, we’re doing it.” The “we” in question was Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves, who has since appeared in a cameo in spinoff Ballerina and expressed his own enthusiasm to return for the right story. And now we have a more concrete update.

Speaking to BusinessInsider, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson has revealed that the stars have aligned, and the good idea both Stahelski and Reeves required as a condition of their return has appeared: “Chad and Keanu have an idea that they think can be really exciting. There are a lot of steps, so I wouldn’t want to put a timeline on it. But in terms of finding a core idea, they seem to have landed on something that they are excited about, and now we’ll see.” Fogelson also noted that both Donnie Yen’s From the World of John Wick: Caine spinoff and an animated prequel will release before John Wick 5, but it’s finally happening.

What to Expect From John Wick 5

If you’re expecting another John Wick vs The High Table dust-up with imaginative set-pieces and choreographed gun-fu, you may not get that from John Wick 5. Stahelski revealed to Empire that a fifth John Wick chapter will be “really different” after the High Table story thread was resolved: “The saga of John Wick was pretty wrapped up. So the only way to do a [fifth film] is to have a new story that involves John Wick. It’s not a continuation with the High Table. John dealt with his grief. It will be really different, and everybody [will] see the trailer and go, ‘Holy f*ck… I gotta see that.’”

Stahelski also revealed at the time that the animated prequel and the previously announced John Wick: Under the High Table series would both feed directly into John Wick 5, but it’s interesting that only the anime was mentioned by Fogelman. Stahelski told Empire that the “idea is to try some things and explore some threads and use those two properties to catapult us forward into the ideas for John 5.” It’s an interesting prospect to be faced with a John Wick movie that won’t involve such a definitive part of his lore, but the reality is that Wick’s character and Reeves’ performance are enough to propel the brand, which is a rare thing these days.

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