John Wick 5 just got a positive update that suggests the movie will be made eventually, but it still sounds some way away.
Plans for a full John Wick: Chapter 5, once again starring Keanu Reeves, were announced April last year, but just two months later, in June, director Chad Stahelski said he was still trying to work out a story for the sequel in order to work around the climactic ending of John Wick: Chapter 4.
Warning! Spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4 follow.
John Wick appears to die at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4 after, once again, defeating the bad guys. We even get to see John Wick’s gravestone, with Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) saying their farewells. But, crucially, we only see John Wick collapse from his injuries and appear to die.
So, how can Reeves continue as Wick? Last year, The Hollywood Reporter asked Stahelski if he'd managed to work that out yet in a recent interview. Here’s the exchange:
THR: You’ve said that John Wick 5 won’t renege on the ending of 4, that John Wick will still have died. Has that evolved? The last time we spoke last year, you were trying to crack it.
Chad Stahelski: I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a bit of a conundrum. Me and Mike Finch — the writer on 4 who’s also writing 5 — we’ve got a pretty good story that I think is cool. Once we have a 50-page book, and if we’re feeling it, we’ll sit with Keanu and shape this thing. Look, everybody seems to want it. It’s a matter of whether we crack it. We’re actively working on it. It’s just … is it going to be satisfying?
Now, a year later, comments from Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson suggest Reeves and Stahelski have indeed cracked it.
Speaking to Business Insider, Folgelson said: “Chad and Keanu have an idea that they think can be really exciting.”
That’s certainly positive news for John Wick 5, but Folgelson said the Donnie Yen Caine spinoff and animated prequel will both come out before both it. "There are a lot of steps, so I wouldn't want to put a timeline on it,” Folgelson continued. “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."
It makes sense that yet another mainline John Wick movie would be greenlit, given John Wick: Chapter 4 took in over $440 million at the worldwide box office and each of the first four films accomplishing the rare feat of outperforming its predecessor. But John Wick himself, Keanu Reeves, is 61 years old. How old will he be when it comes to shooting John Wick 5? 62? 63? While Reeves has shown remarkable staying power in the action genre, continuing to do much of his own 'Gun fu' close-quarters fighting in the John Wick films, he can't go on forever.
In December 2024, Reeves told CBS News that he wasn't sure his body would be up to the task of making another John Wick movie. "You can never say never,” Reeves said at the time. “My knees right now are saying ‘I can’t do another John Wick.' So my heart does but I don’t know if my knees can do it.” Of course, four months later, John Wick 5 starring Reeves was announced.
Two additional John Wick spinoffs are already in development, including the aforementioned anime prequel that will tell the story of John Wick’s 'Impossible Task,' and the spinoff featuring Donnie Yen's character, Caine. There are even whispers of a samurai western spinoff set in the John Wick universe.
In May 2025, Stahelski told Empire to expect something different from John Wick 5.
“The saga of John Wick was pretty wrapped up,” Stahelski said. “So the only way to do a 5 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**k... I gotta see that.'"
Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/john-wick-5-gets-first-positive-update-in-a-year