As of mid-May of this year, the John Wick franchise has made at least $1,011,319,297 globally. John Wick, the character played by Keanu Reeves, has killed 439 people … give or take a bunch. That’s a whole lot of money and mayhem right there, so what’s left at this point?

John Wick 5: Perhaps?  (Spoilers Ahead!)

With his dramatic death at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4, it’s hard to believe Wick can come back for a fifth installment. We all saw him succumb to the gunshot wounds inflicted by Caine at the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, then finally get laid to rest in the ground beside his oft-mentioned, beloved late wife, Helen (played by Bridget Moynihan).

But tough as it would be to pull off a Jon Snow-like resurrection for Wick, director Chad Stahelski isn’t counting anything out.

A recent interview with Stahelski on the Happy Sad Confused podcast suggests that Wick fans shouldn’t give up on their man too fast. Basically, he says, he and his partner-in-rampant-destruction Reeves are just waiting for the right … something …

“I have no doubt that we would come up with a lot of great pieces, it’s just, what’s the main thread? … What’s the message in the fable? What’s the moral of the story?”

Stahelski goes onto to explain the concept of hagakure, which basically says that, according to its author, the mid-17th century samurai and Zen Buddhist priest Yamamoto Tsunetomo, “the way of the warrior is death.” By the end of the interview, it’s safe to say that Stahelski doesn’t give us much in the way of September Easter eggs … but he also makes it clear he and Reeves aren’t closing any doors to a fifth entry in the groundbreaking action series. If they can figure out a way to top what they’ve done and advance the story and themes of the first four entries–which admittedly won’t be easy–it sounds like the Baba Yaga might yet be making a return.

John Wick Moving Forward

Obviously, a John Wick film without Reeves himself simply wouldn’t work. Yes, there are a couple of spinoffs in the works but until that time, maybe we should focus on the backstory, like this three-part streaming Peacock origin tale of The Continental, the fictional chain of hotels unknown underground as legal assassin safe havens.

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