John Wick: Chapter 4 is flooring audiences harder than Keanu and Donnie have to a horde of enemies. Even though this entry already sports a lengthy running time, plus the revelation that the original cut was over four hours long, series director Chad Stahelski reveals that he was pitched to do a Chapter 4 and a Chapter 5 together, filming back-to-back. ScreenRant gives the lowdown on the director’s decision to stick with the one chapter and what the franchise can potentially expand into in the future.
Stahelski reveals that after Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Lionsgate originally approached him with the idea of filming the next two sequels back-to-back and he turned that idea down. “Not to cause any weird clickbait or anything like that, the studio first came to us and went, ‘Look, we would like to explore the option of doing 4 and 5 together.’ And the daunting-ness of that at first is a little intimidating, [but] it’s also incredibly flattering. In an industry where everyone’s trying to get something made, and you’re trying to get your wacky ideas made and somebody to listen and give them a shot, to have people come to you and go, ‘Please make more of what you do?’ I can’t thank Lionsgate enough for even presenting that opportunity.”
Then, he continues, “I’ve been a part of projects that have done two films together at once and, [at least] for me, I don’t know how to do it. Creatively, I don’t know how to get my head around that. I think the greatest part is that, after each John Wick, I took two years off to go live and get better; to travel, to read more, and to get better. I don’t know how to do a movie back-to-back and get better for the second one. You’d see John Wick 4 and then John Wick 4B, right? Same camera, same colors, same action, same style of choreography, same storylines. I had no time to be influenced by life and bring life back in, so I just thought it was kind of a cheat.”
After Chapter 4 featured some amazing additions to the cast, when thinking about who he’d love to work with in a possible sequel, Stahelski throws out a number of names, including Cillian Murphy, Jason Momoa, Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, as well as some obvious wishlist choices, like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sylvester Stallone, and Clint Eastwood.
While there are already extensions, which include Ballerina and The Continental, making their way to audiences, producer Erica Lee also thought about expanding on Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King and the new character of Akira. “I think the world of the Bowery King and the Bowery is something that we’re really interested in exploring more of. He sort of runs the underground, and it’s such an interesting world. How does he get the guns and the boats? He shows up everywhere.” She then mentions an Akira spin-off as newcomer Rina Sawayama made a big impression on audiences. “The character of Akira really pops in the movie, and I’d love to sort of see some further adventures with her character.”