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John Wick 5 Confirmed, Will Shoot Back To Back With Fourth Movie
John Wick 5 is officially confirmed and will shoot back-to-back with John Wick 4. Back in 2014, Keanu Reeves experienced a career renaissance when the first John Wick movie came out, earning widespread praise for its exhilarating action sequences and simple, yet effective, story. The film was a sleeper hit at the box office, grossing $86 million worldwide against a $20 million production budget. That success spawned a franchise, with John Wick: Chapter 2 hitting theaters in 2017, and John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum debuting last year. Each installment has proven to be a bigger hit than the last.
Unsurprisingly, Lionsgate had plans in place for John Wick 4, which was originally supposed to premiere in 2021. However, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, John Wick 4's premiere was pushed back to 2022. Reeves still has to finish filming The Matrix 4 (which was in the middle of production when the coronavirus shutdowns started) before he suits back up as the Baba Yaga. It would appear the delay has proven to be beneficial for the John Wick creative team, and they've locked down a fifth movie in the series.
Lionsgate officially announced John Wick 5 during their most recent earnings call. The idea is for it to film back-to-back with John Wick 4. CEO John Feltheimer said the studio is aiming for production to take place "early next year." You can read his full quote, below:
Since John Wick 4 hasn't locked down an official shooting date yet, it may be a little surprising John Wick 5 already got the green light, but this development makes sense. The John Wick franchise has gotten stronger as it's gone on, so Lionsgate is interested in keeping it going for as long as possible. Especially as the film industry (both studios and theaters) looks to bounce back from the COVID shutdowns, banking on established properties that are safe bets at the box office is a logical way to go. Unless John Wick 4 marks a steep decline in quality and the series falls out of the public's favor (and based on its track record, it won't), John Wick 5 has the makings of being a surefire hit for Lionsgate.
The John Wick franchise was already serialized in nature (there's virtually no time jump between the three movies to date), so filming the next two installments back-to-back is fitting for the franchise. Other sequels that went this route (like Reeves' own Matrix followups) are normally two halves of a bigger whole, working together to tell an overarching story. It stands reason to believe John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 will be intricately connected narratively. It'll be interesting to see what director Chad Stahelski and company came up with, as each John Wick film further deepens the series' rich mythology and expands the universe. And John Wick 5 may not even be the end of the road. Stahelski's said he has ideas for several more sequels.
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2022)
Release Date: May 27, 2022
