Stahelski gives updates on John Wick 5, Ballerina, Wick Anime, Under the High Table and the Caine movie

With John Wick turning ten years old yesterday, Co-Creator and overseer of the Wick Universe, Chad Stahelski has been reflecting on the franchise’s future… and past.

We’ve known for a while now that the world of John Wick would go far beyond the central character and movies and now we’re starting to get a flavour of what the various sequels, anime and spin-offs are all about and it sounds like not only is it going to be very exciting, but Stahelski and Keanu Reeves will be there to ensure that it all feels like it’s part of the same reality.

Donnie Yen’s Blind assassin Caine gets his own John Wick spinoff movie

So far in the World of John Wick, we’ve had four Wick movies and The Continental TV series and it seems that up next is the Caine spin-off starring Donnie Yen as the blind assassin and then the anime movie (now confirmed) that will tell us about a big part of John’s past that was teased already.

“These are all going on at the same time [the Caine movie and the anime]. The Donnie Yen feature, we’re building it right now. We’re in the middle of writing it right now,” says Stahelski.

“Right now, we’re knee-deep in development on a feature anime about John Wick. It’s a prequel to the movies, which is awesome. It’s fun that it’s in a different medium,” he goes on.

In the first John Wick movie we learn that he left ‘the business’ for the love of a woman but to do so, he had to carry out an ‘impossible task’, when asked if that’s what the anime will be about, Stahelski plays his cards close to his chest but gives some clues: “Ish,” he says.

“You’re pretty right on, but it’s animated fun. It’s meant to be fun. Some of the prequels and sequels that you see in other franchises, we’re not meant to be built that way. We just want to have fun. We want to have fun with the Wick world, but we’ve already capped it on one end [with John Wick: Chapter 4], so let’s go back and use a different medium.”

And, speaking of ‘capping it’, he’s keen to point out that Wick’s story ended in Chapter 4 and that will not be undone, so the fifth movie, should it happen, will not run in a linear fashi but rather take place somewhere else in the timeline: “That’s the end. That’s the deal. That’s what we found closure for. Look, sometimes, we’ll keep things in development. Sometimes, we’ll use development as an exercise, but is there an opportunity to do [John Wick 5]? Of course, there is, whether it’s for money or for creativity.

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“Jesus, in the last three years, I’ve already had three or four versions of a John Wick 5. They were different ways to crack the story, but it’s almost a mental exercise for me.”

As for the fifth movie, “It would not be part of that [John Wick: Chapter 4] storyline. It would not be what you would think it is. As far as [John Wick: Chapter 4], we’ve peaked. At least, I have. That’s my apex. We ended it. It’s a complete story. I watch it now, and I feel very happy about it, but we wouldn’t try to outdo it. We wouldn’t try to add on to that. It’d have to be a completely different storyline”.

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Stahelski is also keen to point out that recent reports of extensive reshoots on Len Wiseman’s Ballerina movie, the first big screen spinoff, were greatly exaggerated: “We went back in with my writing team that had done John Wick: Chapter 4, and my stunt team, and we just gave it a little shine together with Len and what he had already done. It wasn’t that much.

“We just went in for a couple of weeks. We changed some of the action sequences and made up for some time that Len just didn’t have. He didn’t have enough time to do some of the bigger shots that it deserved. There was a weather thing in Austria, and so we got to go back in for that. So it’s shaping up pretty nicely.”

Finally, as of right now, the last thing that’s currently being developed is the Under the High Table TV series which Stahelski points out is where they really break away from John Wick and start exploring the world that he happens to be a part of: “It’s in the John Wick universe, and it’s about all the ancillary characters other than John Wick. So you can explore things that we couldn’t do in the features,” he says.

“To keep churning out episodes of John Wick’s adventures seems a little false to us, but to explore different aspects of the world and different aspects of John Wick before the films and through a different medium, whether it’s anime or TV, that feels fun. We can be a little bit more crazy and nutty in the anime, and we can be a lot more explicit in our storytelling and world building on the TV show. So those are exciting to us without seeming repetitive, and that’s where we’re putting our energies right now.”

There is a careful balance and flavour that must be maintained to keep the World of John Wick consistent [I’m guessing Ballerina didn’t quite fit that but does now] and it seems that Stahelski and Reeves are both heavily involved to make sure it all fits together properly and fluidly: “Every time I get something on my desk, the first person I call is Keanu,” Stahelski says, “To be completely fucking arrogant for a second, we didn’t just work the last 10 years to see it all go to shit.”

 

Source: THR