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John Wick Director Has Plenty of Stunt Ideas for Chapter 5 - Now He Just Needs to Find the Story
"If we come back, we can't just do the same thing."
After four critical and box office triumphs with the John Wick franchise, stuntman turned director Chad Stahelski is taking a well-deserved hiatus from the bloody escapades of the dog-loving hitman in order to focus on other film projects like Rainbow Six, a remake of Highlander, and an adaptation of The Ghost of Tsushima.
While those movies take shape, he'll step into the advisory role of producer on the Wick action series, which will continue to expand in a pair of spinoffs — Peacock's The Continental and Ballerina — over the next year.
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Still, the big question remains: Is there going to be a John Wick: Chapter 5? Stahelski hasn't ruled it out completely and while the filmmaker does have a mental bank of stunt ideas he wasn't able to realize on previous entries, there isn't a concrete storyline in place.
John Wick director has stunt ideas for possible Chapter 5
"I don't have a take right now," he confessed to Empire for the magazine's August 2023 issue. "But I could wake up tomorrow and have a cool idea that I'd pitch to Keanu [Reeves], or he would pitch to me, and it might hit that chord of, 'Oh my God, we got to do this right now.' I have scenes, I have action sequences in my head that we haven't used yet that I'd love to do. If we do come back, we can't just do the same thing. I gotta do my homework. I gotta get better."
If that narrative epiphany does come along, there's then the matter of whether Stahelski will direct or not.
Stahelski isn't opposed to handing off the franchise reigns "if somebody I've never met before walks in that door" and blows him away with an extraordinary pitch. "It'd be worth the talk," he added, going on to qualify that hypothetical statement with: "But I'm very selfish and jealous. I'm a control freak. I want to smack you just for suggesting it. [Laughs] Like, how dare you? Of course I want to do it."
At the same time, Stahelski is content with the way Chapter 4 "completed the circle, so-to-speak" by allowing John to finally escape his obligations to the High Table through death... or at least the appearance of death.
RELATED: The Continental: Will Peacock's John Wick Spinoff Get a Season 2? Director Muses On ‘80s Sequel
"I think it's pretty good closure for the series," he concluded. "And then there's the competitor, or the real director in me who goes, 'F*** it, let's see if we can do it.' It's very appealing. I just don't have the 'why' yet. But that doesn't mean we should stop looking."
John Wick: Chapter 4 is now available to rent/purchase on Digital, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD.
The world of the films will expand this fall when The Continental: From the World of John Wick checks into Peacock. Ballerina, directed by Underworld alum Len Wiseman, hits the big screen June 7, 2024.
