Let me start this post off by accentuating the positive: I think 2025 is going to be a great year for the John Wick franchise.
For starters, a fifth John Wick movie — not John Wick 5, just to be clear, but rather a spinoff starring Ana de Armas that’ll technically be the fifth film in the franchise — is set to hit theaters on June 6, 2025. Its story will depict events that are set between the third and fourth movies in the series. If we’re lucky, we might also see the John Wick sequel TV series next year that was confirmed earlier this month, a project that’s particularly intriguing because Wick star Keanu Reeves himself is executive-producing it.
There’s no release timing or streamer attached to that series yet, so a 2025 release is just my hope for when we’ll see it — especially since it could capitalize on interest in the new movie and vice versa. Furthermore, perhaps this next bit of news will kick that TV series, which takes place after the events of John Wick: Chapter 4, into high gear:
I’m referring to the confirmation, courtesy of Collider, that John Wick 5 will not be shooting next year after all, and that the much-anticipated sequel won’t actually be coming together anytime soon. That’s because John Wick director Chad Stahelski will be tied up shooting his Highlander movie, starring Henry Cavill, early next year. Which is a bummer, though us fans should at least console ourselves that a lesser director isn’t being tapped to rush out #5 just to fulfill some sort of arbitrary timetable.
What’s more, John Wick Presents: Ballerina, looks like it will be more than enough to fill the stylish assassin-sized hole in all our hearts, starring not only de Armas but Ian McShane (reprising his role as Continental owner Winston Scott) and the late Lance Reddick, who played Wick’s friend and Continental concierge Charon (for now, I’m choosing to ignore chatter that the new movie isn’t being well-received thus far).
Honestly, it will never cease to amaze me just how much juice Lionsgate has managed to squeeze out of the story of an assassin who, at least at first, sets out to avenge the death of his dog. Thanks not only to Reeves’ off-the-charts likability but also the movies’ highly choreographed, visually stunning action sequences and criminal underworld replete with its own traditions and lore, this whole thing turned into a $1 billion franchise. John Wick: Chapter 4, of course, seemed to bring it all to an end, with Wick being gravely wounded in a duel with High Table member Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont.
The only thing we saw for sure by the time those credits rolled, though, was a tombstone with Wick’s name on it, while his dead body was nowhere to be found. Which is to say, Stahelski and Reeves can certainly keep this train rolling right along if the right story presents itself. Between the spinoff movie we’re getting next year and the sequel TV series that’s in the works, I certainly can’t wait to dive back into the franchise’s stylized universe with its colorful cast of characters and killers. Here’s hoping the delay in shooting John Wick 5 is just that, a delay, rather than the movie being put on ice indefinitely.
