John Wick 4: Who Is Returning?
John Wick 4 faced some delays, but now Keanu Reeves and company will be in theaters on March 24, 2023.
Released in 2014 with Keanu Reeves bringing his brooding persona as a retired (but not for long) hitman who is called back into action because some Russian mob dolts killed his dog and took his car, John Wick was an instant hit. Six years later and now we’re getting John Wick 4.
When the movie’s titular character is still very much alive (though he’s taken a beating) and the first three movies in your franchise look like this:
- Box Office – $89 million Rotten Tomatoes – 86%
- Box Office – $172 million Rotten Tomatoes – 89%
- Box Office – $327 million Rotten Tomatoes – 90%
Then you can all but be certain there’s a fourth movie coming. Such is the case with the initially surprising, but now very much a mainstay, John Wick franchise.
For a film franchise pretty light on storylines but heavy (understatement) on the action, guns, blood and guts (and vintage sports cars) John Wick has been nothing short of a home run from a franchise perspective. Reeves is perfect in the role and the filmmakers know their exact lane, staying in it with brutal efficiency. They’ve even gone one step further in each movie, establishing an entire universe and hierarchy of assassins, which is actually pretty intriguing.
So yes, we are getting a John Wick 4 with even some word there will be an offshoot flick entitled Ballerina. But for now, let’s take a look at what we know, or can speculate on, for John Wick 4.
THE OFFICIAL TITLE IS JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, FOR NOW
Thanks to an Instagram post from stunt performer Tsvetolyub Ileiv, it looks like we now know the full title of John Wick: Chapter 4. Along with Keanu Reeves reportedly giving out $50,000 worth of Rolexes to the stunt team, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski teamed up to gift stunt performers with martial arts outfits, including a gi, belt, and pants all with the John Wick logo.
But of particular interest is a bag that came with the gifts. At the end of the collection of photos, Iliev posted a bag with the John Wick 4 logo and below it, the subtitle Hagakure. So it will apparently either be titled John Wick 4: Hagakure or John Wick: Chapter 4 — Hagakure. You can see the Instagram post below.
CHAD STAHELSKI IS BACK DIRECTING JOHN WICK 4
Chad Stahelski helmed all three of the first ones (co-directing the first with David Leitch) and it was his Reddit AMA about the John Wick franchise that initially confirmed that John Wick 4 was in the works. From that perspective, it stands to reason that he’s in the big chair once again.
Additionally, Derek Kolstad created the franchise and wrote the first three movies. If we are playing the odds here, it would make a lot of sense for him to maintain that role for the fourth movie. Again, nothing official but it would be odd to pivot out of this creative team now.
IAN MCSHANE AND LAWRENCE FISHBURNE WILL RETURN TO JOIN KEANU REEVES
Keanu Reeves is the only name officially attached to the project as of now. But we can make certain assumptions about additional pieces of the cast.
Ian McShane as Winston, the proprietor of the New York City Continental along with Lance Reddick as Charon the concierge will almost certainly be back in John Wick 4, at least as antagonists to start. They ended that way in the third movie and have been in all three. Except for Reeves, they are the only two characters who’ve appeared in all three movies to date.
Additionally, the third movie left off with Laurence Fishburne’s The Bowery King character seemingly teaming up with John. I suspect he’s back and that could even be the opening scene.
And finally, I suspect we at least have Asia Kate Dillon as the Adjudicator and Said Taghmaoui as the Elder back in John Wick 4 as well.
BILL SKARSGARD HAS BEEN CAST
There was a bit of mystery around this casting with the assumption that Bill Skarsgard would be taking a feature role in the flick, possibly more on the evil side of things. That’s going to be the case with the word that he will play The Marquis de Gramont, a member of the High Table who John Wick will come into conflict with over the course of the movie.
JOHN WICK 4 WILL LIKELY PICK UP RIGHT AFTER CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM
Nothing official here but considering how the other three John Wick movies have gone, I think we can make some rather safe assumptions.
For starters, movies two and three picked up almost to the minute after their predecessors. Considering this and the fast-paced nature of the action along with many of the High Table’s assassins assembled already in New York, my guess is John Wick 4 picks up right there.
Stahelski has also intimated, and kind of just flat-out said, it’s not going to end all that well for John. Considering the nature of the franchise, just how many near-death moments the character has already had and how there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of nearly-superhuman assassins out in the world looking for his head, it makes sense that it wouldn’t look good for Wick. Is John Wick 4 the movie he finally cashes the last marker? Probably not, but it looks like we’re gearing up for a brutal ending when it’s all said and done.
KEANU REEVES IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE NICEST ACTORS WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD
Keanu Reeves has a reputation as being one of the nicest people in Hollywood. He’s rumored to have given everyone on the stunt crew motorcycles when The Matrix finished filming. He’s reportedly given tens of millions of dollars to charity. There are dozens of stories like this which claim he’s really the nicest, most giving famous person there is.
And apparently, it’s all true, or at least it is according to someone who knows him pretty well: His stunt double. Professional stunt driver Jeremy Fry doubled for Keanu through all of the John Wick movies and presumably will be back on the job again for John Wick 4. When asked about Keanu’s nice guy reputation he had this to say to CINEMABLEND…
“He is a giver, he is selfless, he works tirelessly. Every good thing you’ve heard about him is 110% true.“
Fry also says Keanu works hard to do his own stunts, whenever possible. You’d think that would bother Fry, since that means less work for him, but apparently, it only makes him love Keanu Reeves more. He says…
“There was a shot where we wanted Keanu to slide up the camera and we wanted to… have the camera come right up to him. And we worked with him for a while on that one, and it’s a tricky one [but] he nailed it. He did such a good job on that. It’s always interesting to me when actors want to do their own stunts… when you have people who you can use and you won’t know that it’s not them. But Keanu, he completely gets that. He has never said, ‘I want to do that. I want to do it.’ He trusts Darren and [director Chad Stahelski] to make the best decision that they can and he knows that they will use him whenever they feel it’s appropriate and safe.“
Look for more stories of Keanu Reeves’ kindness to come out of the cast and crew on John Wick 4.
A JOHN WICK 5 HAS ALREADY BEEN CONFIRMED
Will John Wick 4 be the last entry in the Keanu Reeves action franchise? We got a direct answer from Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer who recently said on the company’s earnings call: “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 & 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year.”
HALLE BERRY IS NOT RETURNING
One person we won’t be seeing in John Wick 4 is Halle Berry, who made her debut as Sofia in the third film. According to Berry via Variety, “Sofia’s not in the next ‘John Wick’ movie,” Berry said, although she said that doesn’t mean it is the end for her character. “There could possibly be a Sofia…her own movie. So, she might not be in ‘John Wick,’ but she might be doing her own thingy-thingy.”
While there won’t be a Halle Berry sighting, there are plenty of new names to the franchise that should keep things quite interesting for John Wick.
A HALLE BERRY SPIN-OFF COULD BE IN THE WORKS
There’s long been talk of creating a John Wick spinoff franchise and now it’s actually happening. Word is that Halle Berry’s character from John Wick 3 will get her own movie.
In the third film, Berry appeared as Sofia Al-Azar, an old flame of John’s who is not only a fellow assassin but a fellow dog lover. She travels everywhere with high-trained, bonded Belgian shepherds who are not only incredibly loyal but also incredibly lethal.
In John Wick 3 Sofia is the manager of the Moroccan branch of the Continental Hotel. This also fits in with those past rumors we’ve heard that the Continental and its world could end up being the spinoff movie John Wick gives us. Sofia’s film could do both.
JOHN WICK 4 WILL RELEASE IN THEATERS ON MARCH 24, 2023
John Wick 4 was scheduled to release in theaters on May 21, 2021. Just your average late-spring, early-summer release day right? Think again.
That was the same day another fourth-in-the-franchise Keanu Reeves film hit the big screens. You got it, Matrix 4 and John Wick 4 were coming out the same day.
Obviously, this was a situation that could not last and someone had to budge. That someone is John Wick. The Trades report that John Wick has surrendered to Neo and the release date of John Wick: Chapter 4 was moved an entire year to May 27, 2022. Unfortunately, that would prove to be only the first delay.
In December 2021, Paramount released a video set in the same communications network that handles the assassination contracts in the John Wick universe. While it was fun to get the teaser, it came with the bad news that John Wick: Chapter 4 had been pushed back yet another 10 months to March 24, 2023.
There’s been no official word on the reason for the delay, though Paramount recently pushed back most of the release dates on its films, so it likely wasn’t a reason specific to John Wick: Chapter 4. You can see the video announcement below.
