John Wick Director Offers Big Clues for New TV Series, Distances Himself from The Continental

The John Wick franchise is gearing up to expand into TV, and that’s not counting last year’s three-part event series The Continental. It was previously confirmed that another TV show set in the action-packed world of John Wick was in the works, and now series director Chad Stahelski has some details about what it may be about, and who may appear. Speaking on the latest “Watchalong” episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Chad Stahelski reiterated that development on a new John Wick TV series is happening and was only hampered by the dual labor strikes in Hollywood over the summer

“We’re currently trying to develop a a John Wick TV series and Lionsgate has been very cool about backing us,” Stahelski revealed about the project. “You know we just started getting into the the nitty-gritty of it when the the strikes all happen.” When asked to clarifiy if he was referring to something other than The Continental, he replied: “Not The Continental, (had) very little to do with The Continental. That was something done before we had finished John Wick 4. Keanu and I were consulted a little but that was that’s a completely separate energy from our deal.”

Stahelski added, “We’d like to do the John Wick show. and so hopefully maybe in this TV series we can bring back some of the people we love.” When asked who the protagonist of the show would be, considering John Wick hismelf is no longer with us, he replied with a smile, “It’s going to be fun to watch, isn’t it? Something to look forward to next year or the year after if Hollywood can get their sh-t together.”

One of the potential characters floated about as something that’s still alive in the world of John Wick is Common’s Cassian, the bodyguard character he played in John Wick: Chapter 2. Stahelski noted that he believed his character was “still out there,” and survived the events of the sequel, even though it was left ambiguous by the movie itself.

The future of the John Wick franchise was previously addressed by Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Joe Drake, who previously revealed as much about the future of franchise, saying: “On the Wick side we got multiple spin-offs and Wick Five. We started to work on (it) right when the writer’s strike started and we’ve gotten back to work as soon as it ended.” 

“We have ideas for days,” Stahelski himself previously said about the potential for the Wick franchise’s future. “We just don’t have the story locked. I have no interest in doing the cash grab of bringing John Wick back for something. Is he a character I like? Of course. And if I did a couple of John Wick movies, great. Keanu would do one again in a second if we had a good story. We leave that open-ended. I know that the studio would love us to say we have another one.”