John Wick: Chapter 5 in Early Development at Lionsgate Despite Obvious Roadblock

Lionsgate dropped some big news on an earnings call yesterday without so much as a hint that it’d be doing it. The studio confirmed that John Wick: Chapter 5 is in the works right now along with the slew of spinoff projects already in development. We’ll keep John Wick: Chapter 4 spoilers for lower in the article, but obviously this may come as a bit of a surprise to folks who have seen the fourth and supposedly final film in the franchise.

During the call, which featured a slew of Lionsgate leadership, one attendee asked about John Wick 5 and whether or not it was official. In response, Lionsgate Chairman of Motion Pictures Joseph Drake said, “What is official is that, as you know, Ballerina is the first spinoff that comes out next year. We’re in development on three others, including 5 and including a television series, The Continental, (which) will be airing soon. And so we’re building out the world and when that 5 movie comes will be an organic — will be organically grown out of how we’re starting to tell those stories. But you can rely on regular cadence with John Wick.”

Obviously, the answer was geared towards making investors happy about a wildly successful franchise continuing on despite the death of John Wick himself at the end of Chapter 4, but it drops a ton of bombs. John Wick: Chapter 5 was actually in the works originally when the final films starring Keanu Reeves were announced, with the films being two partners. However, the movies eventually got condensed into one thanks to creative decisions and the pandemic, meaning the state of the fifth film was somewhat of a mystery. Both Reeves and director Chad Stahelski have hinted at the desire for a fifth film though. With the roaring success of Chapter 4, more stuff in the John Wick universe was clearly coming, but a direct sequel had seemed unlikely until now.

Development on John Wick: Chapter 5 isn’t the only news in there, however. Reexamining the quote from above, it appears that on top of the spinoff film series Ballerina and the TV show The Continental, there’s one more project that’s being worked on that Drake doesn’t name but refers to as one of the “three others” in the works. Just what this film or show might be isn’t clear, though Lionsgate has been pretty vocal about bringing the franchise into gaming in a big way. Maybe they’ll young-CGI Reeves for a prequel and we’ll finally get to the see the infamous pencil kill for ourselves.