It all started with John Wick (2014), reuniting the former stunts artist Chad Stahelski with star Keanu Reeves which had worked together in The Replacements (2000), The Gift (2000), Constantine (2005), and The Matrix original trilogy as the fights choreographer and Reeves’ stunt double. Then, when Keanu Reeves debuted as a director with Man of Tai Chi (2013), he hired Stahelski as the martial arts choreographer. In Stahelski’s debut, John Wick (2014), he paid back to his pal and gave him the main role. And the little creature grew huge, becoming probably the most important action saga of the last years.
Not even a decade has past and we already have the release date for the 4th entry of the franchise, John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023), and the announcement of a fifth movie already in the works.
The saga centers on John Wick, played by Keanu Reeves. Born Jardani Jovonovich in Belarus, he was an orphan and was taken in by the Tarasov Russian Mafia where he was raised as an assassin. He was so ruthless that the mafia boss Viggo Tarasov respected and feared him. At the beginning of the first film, Wick has been retired from the mafia for five years due to the meeting of his future wife, her sickness, and her ultimate death. Hell breaks loose when a group of men break into his home, steal his beloved vintage car, and kill his puppy, Daisy, which was the final gift from his recently deceased wife, Helen.
John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) follow the immediate events of that fateful night. John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) will be the natural continuation.
Together with Keanu Reeves, the main cast of the new John Wick flick will consist of Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Natalia Tena, Clancy Brown, and reprising their roles in the previous films Laurence Fishburne as Bowery King, Lance Reddick as Charon, and Ian McShane as Winston.
The release of John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) was initially planned to be on the same day as The Matrix Resurrections (2021), which also stars Keanu Reeves. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the schedule changes pushed the release to March 24, 2023. And although the release date is more than one year ahead, Lionsgate has recently released an announcement teaser in the aesthetics of the John Wick universe to start warming up the audience. Do we need a warm-up? I can’t wait for some more John Wick!
