How Much Time Has Passed In The John Wick Movies Revealed, And It’s Mind Blowing
Chad Stalheski, director of the John Wick franchise, finally shared that the first three films take place over the period of just a week and a half, while John Wick 4 is set six months later.
Seeing how movies can condense days, months, or even years into a two-hour experience, it’s hard to guess how much time has passed in a movie — and even harder to know how much time has passed between movies. According to John Wick director Chad Stahelski, they made an intentional choice to not let the audience know how much time has passed in Keanu Reeves‘s series of action-packed films. However, in an interview with Collider, he revealed that the events of the first three John Wick films took place over a week and a half — and the upcoming John Wick 4 will take place six months after the original trilogy.
Well, we figured the first three movies almost happened in like a week, week and a half, somewhere in there,” Stahelski told Collider. “That’s my version, I think Keanu’s is a little different, and I think [John Wick 4] is like six months later.”
Up until this point, the subject of the John Wick franchise’s timeline had been subject to massive speculation. It was clear that the films took place in rapid succession, with each movie picking up right where the previous one left off. But with a plot that takes John Wick to multiple countries, it’s clear that there’s a lot more going on than can happen in just a few days. A week and a half is plausible — but it’s still a short amount of time for someone to travel from New York to Rome, then back again, then to Morocco, then back again to fight alongside the late Lance Reddick — all while being hunted by the world’s deadliest people.
Of course, the John Wick films do a good job of emphasizing the sort of frantic, never-letting-up pace that such a timeline implies. The franchise has been widely praised for its tightly-choreographed action sequences and the hyper-stylized rhythm and pacing of the film.
The end of John Wick 3 left the titular character a little bit more injured than could readily be shaken off in just a week, however, so it makes sense for there to be a time-skip — unless you want to see two hours of John Wick killing assassins while rolling around in a wheelchair. Not that that wouldn’t make for an interesting movie.
Of course, what’s considered a time skip in the John Wick universe could very well be a scene change in another film, and there’s no doubt that Mr. Wick will be up to some similar nonstop action once he recovers from his injuries.
The fourth film, which will release on March 24, will follow John Wick as he seeks to defeat the twelve crime lords known as the “High Table,” facing off against Bill Skarsgard‘s Marquis de Gramont, Rina Sawayama’s Akira, and Natalia Tena’s Katie.
John Wick 4 will reportedly focus on the “mythology” of the series, which has so far mostly been hinted at in passing. We might find out more about the way the High Table functions, how The Continental chain of assassin-eccentric hotels came about, and maybe, just maybe, discover how it is that a crime lord’s son somehow had no idea that you shouldn’t steal John Wick’s car and shoot his dog. With how the films have played out, you’d think that “don’t mess with John Wick” would have been lesson one in the crime lord handbook.
