Wicked.
Keanu Reeves will reprise his function because the vengeful hitman John Wick within the newly introduced “John Wick 5,” formally ending hypothesis that his character died within the franchise’s fourth installment.
Lionsgate Movement Image Group chair Adam Fogelson broke the information at CinemaCon on Tuesday. Chad Stahelski, who directed all 4 of the earlier John Wick motion pictures, together with producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, will be part of Reeves in returning to the sequence of movies which have grossed greater than $1 billion worldwide.
“Keanu, Chad, Basil, and Erica would not return unless they had something truly phenomenal and fresh to say with these characters and this world,” Fogelson mentioned in a press release, per EW. “We can’t wait for audiences to see where the journey takes us next.”
In a separate assertion about “John Wick: Chapter 5,” Iwanyk and Lee remarked, “It’s so important to get this story right and give John’s story the proper next step. It’s exciting to take the first step on that road.”
John Wick’s destiny was unsure after 2023’s “John Wick 4” prompt he died following a duel with Marquis de Gramont (Invoice Skarsgård). Within the film’s ultimate scene, Winston (Ian McShane) and Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) stand by a tombstone engraved with Wick’s title. Nevertheless, a shot of Wick’s canine wanting again at his grave led some to imagine the hitman had lived.
A number of months after the discharge of “John Wick 4,” the movie’s director revealed that ending on such an ambiguous word was a “very deliberate choice” and that the movie’s unique conclusion confirmed Wick alive.
“We had a different ending,” Stahelski informed Empire on the time. “We shot an ending where you actually saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was very clear that he was still alive. The audiences we tested with absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending.”
Earlier Lionsgate Movement Image Group Joe Drake additionally prompt a “John Wick 5” was within the offing throughout an earnings name with traders in Could 2023.
“We’re building out the world and when that 5 movie comes, it will be organic — will be organically grown out of how we’re starting to tell those stories,” Drake mentioned.
Earlier than returning for “John Wick 5,” Reeves will seem within the John Wick spinoff “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas. The movie, which takes place between the occasions of “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” and “John Wick: Chapter 4,” is ready to hit theaters on June 6.
Two different John Wick spinoffs are additionally within the offing: a film specializing in Caine, the blind murderer from “John Wick: Chapter 4″ performed by Donnie Yen, and an animated prequel movie.
Lionsgate introduced that manufacturing on the Caine film, directed by and starring Yen, will start in Hong Kong later this yr.
Reeves will voice Wick within the animated prequel, which facilities on his character killing all of his rivals in a single night (known as “the Impossible Task” within the movies).
Reeves may even produce the anime film together with Stahelski, Iwanyk, and Lee. Shannon Tindle has been tapped to direct, and Vanessa Taylor has been introduced aboard to pen the screenplay.
