Summary
- Director Chad Stahelski reveals plans for a new John Wick TV series and anime series, aiming to expand the franchise beyond movies.
- The TV show will explore The High Table and its representatives, while the anime series will take advantage of the medium’s storytelling capabilities.
- Stahelski expresses excitement in the opportunity to delve into new characters and expand the world of John Wick through these upcoming projects.
Director Chad Stahelski has revealed that a new John Wick television series is now in development alongside an anime series. Speaking with The Playlist, Stahelski offered some insight into what’s in store, with the filmmaker eager to expand the franchise far beyond the movies and the recent TV spinoff The Continental: From the World of John Wick (which Stahelski reveals he had “very, very, very little to do with”), with the hopes of bringing back the likes of Donnie Yen and Shamier Anderson.
After being asked about The High Table and why we haven’t really met them yet, Stahelski compared the concept to an unlikely movie…Austin Powers.
“‘Austin Powers’ mocked it so well. An actual table with the stereotypes tropes of evil from different ethnicities from all over the world. We’re never going to show the whole High Table; we’ll show the representatives, but we’ll always keep some of that [mystery].”
While you now try to get the idea of Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil and Robert Wagner’s Number 2 sitting around the table discussing how to deal with that pesky John Wick, Stahelski went on to reveal that a new TV show may delve a little more into the mystery of those at the tippy top of this league of assassins.
“And now that we’ve got… Lionsgate is having us develop the ‘John Wick’ TV show, so we thought we could explore The High Table in that a little bit.”
Stating that the project is “completely separate” from Peacock’s The Continental, Stahelski was asked if this new show would focus on new characters, particularly those introduced in the most recent outing John Wick: Chapter 4. And it sounds like that’s the plan.
“Yeah, I love Donnie [Yen], I love Rina [Sawayama], love the Tracker (Shamier Anderson), and the TV show and the ancillaries will give us a chance to expand the kind of fun world we’ve created, and it doesn’t have to be John Wick, the character specific, you know what I mean so that we can explore all that stuff.”
Chad Stahelski Talks John Wick Anime Series & Why TV Is the Best Way to Expand the Franchise
The likes of Donnie Yen’s Caine and Rina Sawayama’s as Shimazu Akira have quickly become fan-favorites, stealing the show from Keanu Reeves’ title character in the fourth John Wick movie. Many have since hoped for more from them, and Stahelski thinks TV is the way to do it.
“And I think TV is a better format for that, I think because people can jump into the backgrounds, you don’t have to spend so much time with the first act set up and all that.”
If that were not already enough to have John Wick fans excited, Stahelski also revealed that a John Wick anime series is now in the works as well.
“So we’re really looking forward to that; we’re really excited about it because we’re doing that and a Japanese anime because I love Japanese anime so much. So to create all the cool stories that anime could achieve better than we could and the TV show to expand our world, we’ll still get our fix, you know what I mean? And we’ll still have all the fun.”
While we await these projects, next up in the John Wick franchise is Ballerina starring Ana de Armas, which is scheduled to be released on June 7, 2024.
