To quote Keanu Reeves in John Wick, “I’m thinking I’m back.”
At CinemaCon, Lionsgate announced three projects within the John Wick universe: John Wick 5, an animated prequel, and a Caine spinoff starring Donnie Yen.
The big news is John Wick: Chapter 5, with Reeves returning to star and Chad Stahelski back to direct. Stahelski will produce alongside Thunder Road producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee.
2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4 was the franchise’s biggest hit, grossing over $440 million worldwide. At the end of Chapter 4, John dies from the injuries suffered in the duel at Sacré-Cœur. Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) then visit John’s tombstone, which is located next to the one for his wife, Helen.
“Keanu, Chad, Basil, and Erica would not return unless they had something truly phenomenal and fresh to say with these characters and this world,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said about John Wick: Chapter 5 via THR. “We can’t wait for audiences to see where the journey takes us next.”
As previously announced, Yen will reprise his role as Caine in a standalone film. However, Yen has been tapped to direct the Lionsgate film, which has been billed as a Hong Kong-style action thriller. Mattson Tomlin will pen the Caine screenplay. Robert Askins wrote the first draft. Stahelski, Iwanyk, and Lee will also produce.
Caine is a gifted blind assassin and an old friend of Wick who first appears in John Wick: Chapter 4. The movie will pick up after the events of Chapter 4, with Caine no longer working for the High Table. Production begins in Hong Kong later this year.
Finally, Reeves will voice the titular assassin in a John Wick animated movie. Shannon Tindle will direct from a screenplay by Vanessa Taylor. Tindle recently wrote and co-directed Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising. Taylor is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter best known for penning The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro.
The animated movie will be a prequel to John Wick, going back in time to the night when John completed the Impossible Task, the mission that freed him from the High Table so he could start a life with Helen.
Reeves, Stahelski, Iwanyk, and Erica Lee will produce the animated prequel.
