If there’s one thing John Wick fans love, it’s revenge. If there are two things, then the second one is “more John Wick.” Happily, we learned today that we’re getting the latter in spades, as John Wick 5 is actually being developed alongside John Wick 4, according to Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer (via The Hollywood Reporter).
John Wick 4, which was previously given a May 2021 release date, hasn’t begun shooting yet, having been delayed in May by a full year. Now it’s scheduled to hit theaters in May 2022, and Lionsgate plans to shoot John Wick 5 at the same time.
“We’re also busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theatres Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 and 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year,” Feltheimer reportedly told analysts.
Series star Keanu Reeves has been busy lately making Bill and Ted Face the Music, but Lionsgate is clearly eager for him to return to the role of the dog-loving hitman John Wick. As THR points out, the first three movies in the franchise made over $579 million worldwide. There’s also a spin-off TV show, The Continental, and a spin-off movie, Ballerina, in the works.
In our John Wick 3 review in 2019, we noted the series’ “diminishing returns,” calling it “the weakest entry yet in a series that, overall, remains head and shoulders above most of its competition in terms of style, action, writing, world-building, and characters.”