During its presentation at this year’s CinemaCon, Lionsgate announced that it has greenlit production on yet another John Wick feature that will see Keanu Reeves return to reprise his role as the Baba Yaga. Though Lionsgate has not yet shared any plot details or other casting announcements, longtime John Wick director / producer Chad Stahelski, and producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee are attached to the project.
Speaking at CinemaCon about the film, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group head Adam Fogelson assured attendees that Reeves, Stahelski, Iwanyk, and Lee wouldn’t signed on “unless they had something truly phenomenal and fresh to say with these characters and this world,” according to IGN.
In addition to a new live-action movie centering John Wick in the present, the larger John Wick brand will continue to grow with an animated prequel starring Reeves that tells the story of how he once completed the “impossible task” (the franchise’s terminology for killing all of one’s rivals in a single night.) The animated project will be directed by Shannon Tindle (Ultraman: Rising) and written by Vanessa Taylot (Game of Thrones, The Shape of Water.)
Lionsgate has also tapped Donnie Yen to both star in and direct a live-action spinoff built around the blind assassin character Caine, who first appeared in John Wick: Chapter 4.
Given the way John Wick has been featured in the trailers for Ballerina, it’s not entirely surprising to learn that reports of the character’s death were a bit exaggerated. But with Reeves returning to headline another John Wick mainline film, its even more clear now that Lionsgate intends to keep Wick’s story going as long as it possibly can.
