If, like me, you loved John Wick, thought The Continental was great and are biting at the bit for Ballerina, then I have some very good news for you.
I know that ever since ‘that’ ending in John Wick 4, it seemed unlikely that John Wick would return, despite the on-and-off rumours that he would, but now it seems that John Wick is coming back and that, to paraphrase, rumours of his demise have been greatly exaggerated; not only that, but there’s a lot more of the John Wick world to be explored.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Joe Drake has been talking about the world of John Wick and teased that there’s much, much more to come: “On the Wick side, we’ve got multiple spin-offs and Wick Five,” Joe Drake said.
“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 know that Ballerina, set to release next year, will see Keanu Reeves return as Wick for a cameo opposite star Ana de Armas, and there’s also a John Wick open-world game in development, so it seems that this is going to be a universe that has a lot to give beyond Mr Wick.
Wick co-creator Chad Stahelski has recently talked about his ideas for more John Wick movies but how he and Reeves wouldn’t be doing it unless there was a story worth telling: “I have notebooks and notebooks of s@#t behind me, John Wicks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. We have ideas for days.
“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.”
John Wick spinoff The Ballerina will be ‘unlike anything we’ve seen in previous movies.’
Yes, the studio really wants to do another one but they’re happy to explore the world around Wick and The Continental hotel: “Keanu and I are always interested in that, but we leave it hanging out there a little bit to figure out if we have something that we’d want to watch,” Stahelski goes on.
“We have a studio that’s very enthusiastic and not just financially motivated, but they’re just interested in seeing what we could do with it. So, they’ve been super cool of us this year about branching off. I know the term is “spin-offs” or “ancillaries” or whatever you want to call it. Keanu and I both went back, and we all said, “Look, we have ideas for the John Wick world, other characters that aren’t John Wick-centric. Would you guys be interested in exploring that?” And they were super cool, and they said, “Yes, we’d be very interested in that.” Characters that weren’t in any of the movies that had fallen to the sidelines because they just didn’t fit in our storylines, and some existing characters that we’d like to see other things.”
Dead or alive, we’ll be hanging around this hyper-real universe for a long time to come and, if they maintain that quality, then we’re more that ok with that.
What say you all?
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Keanu Reeves really wants John Wick Chapter 4 to be the end of his story
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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