John Wick director says he and Keanu Reeves want to give the franchise "a rest" after Chapter 4

(Image credit: Lionsgate)

The John Wick franchise will be having a rest after John Wick: Chapter 4, according to director Chad Stahelski.

"In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We're going to give John Wick a rest. I'm sure the studio has a plan. If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we'll take a quiet minute," Stahelski told The Hollywood Reporter.

"Wicks always, for some weird reason, always get the latest release date in Japan. It's always like, three months later. If it's the same this time, we'll do a Japanese tour and release the movie in September. Keanu and I will take the long trip to Tokyo, we'll sit in the Imperial Hotel Scotch Bar and go, 'What do you think?' We'll have a couple 20-year-old whiskies and write some ideas on napkins. If those ideas stick, maybe we'll make a movie."

Stahelski and Reeves have worked together on all four movies since the first John Wick movie was released in 2014. John Wick: Chapter 4 is the first installment in the franchise since 2019's John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and sees returning cast members like Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, and Laurence Fishburne join Reeves. New additions include Bill Skarsgård, Donnie Yen, and Rina Sawayama.

Even if this is the end for John Wick, it's certainly not the end of the Wick-verse – two spin-offs are on the way. The Continental, a series about the hotel and refuge for assassins of the same name, is on the way, along with Ballerina, a movie starring Ana de Armas as a ballerina-assassin.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.