John Wick: Chapter 4 released in theatres a few months ago and only recently hit streaming for those who wanted to see it in their own home. Though the movie gives a fairly conclusive end to the story of Keanu Reeves’ unflappable and enduring assassin, it appears that final chapter wasn’t quite so final as you’d think.
During a recent earnings call, Lionsgate’s motion picture chair Joe Drake spoke on the future of the now $US1 ($1) billion franchise. Along with next year’s Ballerina starring Ana de Armas, future installments are “in development…including John Wick 5 and [the Peacock series] The Continental.” The assassin-heavy world of the movies will continued to be built out, he added, and the fifth movie “will be organically grown out of how we’re starting to tell those stories.”
Lionsgate and longtime director Chad Stahelski has been coy about whether or not Chapter 4 really would be the last of these, so it’s not too surprising to hear they’re pulling the trigger on another. Likewise, it’s been made clear that the goal is to keep the franchise going with or without Reeves. So the next mainline movie has some interesting directions as far as where it can go and who some of the major players in it can end up being.
For Lionsgate, Drake said the goal is to have a “regular cadence of John Wick,” and part of that also includes a video game. It’s been previously suggested that a big budget triple-A title was being pursued, and Drake confirmed that the company is “continuing to have those conversations” about it. There’s apparently a “ton of energy” around making this happen, and proposals have been sent from undisclosed developers. Whoever ends up making the game, it’ll be the second in the series, following Bithell Games’ John Wick Hex in 2019.
Given how fun the franchise has been so far, more John Wick is currently a very good thing. But it’s just as easy that Lionsgate oversaturates the series — which has happened with so many other franchises — and ends up scuttling the goodwill it’s earned over the past decade. Hopefully this “cadence of John Wick” takes the time to relax before getting back out there.
[via Gamespot]
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