The nearly impossible challenge awaiting John Wick 5

When John Wick: Chapter 4 concluded with the eponymous assassin slumped over on the steps of Sacré-Cœur, bleeding out after a final duel, I thought it was the perfect farewell. John Wick’s story, marked by the death of his wife and loss of a puppy, had come full circle. The man who fought for anything but peace found some—if only in death.

Yet now with John Wick 5 officially in development, the franchise faces its greatest challenge yet: How do you stretch a narrative that has already been so tightly knit?

Resurrection risks undermining resolution

Restoring John Wick isn’t just a narrative issue; it’s an overarching concern. The character’s development culminated in a manner that gave meaning to all four films. Each film intensified his struggle with the shadowy High Table, culminating in a sacrificial climax that enabled him to regain his sense of self, not as Baba Yaga, but as a man. Would reversing that risk devalue everything he had to endure?

Hints include ambiguous funeral sequences and fan conjectures regarding faked deaths. However, if the fifth installment is to succeed, then enduring must not simply be a plot convenience. There are hints that John might have survived, but honoring the emotional resonance and finality of the last chapter requires hands being tied in a specific way. The justification needs to honor everything framed in the previous story.

A franchise without the high table

So far, it seems Director Chad Stahelski suggests that the forthcoming installment might move away from the High Table. That’s a mixture of good news and bad news. After four films revolving around Wicker’s elaborate confrontations with global criminal networks, a shift in the narrative could be refreshing—or it could completely remove structure.

Without the High Table, John Wick 5 will need to dig much deeper. A more intimate, character-driven plot could do the trick. Instead of vengeance, perhaps self-preservation will be replaced with selflessness. Wick could compellingly shift to protecting someone else or use his skills to redeem himself in the ways that actually matter. Picture Logan or The Last of Us, but surrounded by neon-filled landscapes and assassins.

Why must unretiring again feel necessary

In John Wick (2014) - retirement was 'voluntarily' put on hold due to personal reasons. This time around, the stakes can no longer operate under the equivalency of the original reasoning. The justification has to be more profound than just believable.

Maybe now, plotted around a woman he loves, John tries to live a peaceful life again, and is pulled back into the world of assassins because the woman gets abducted. Maybe remnants of the pale man come back to finish what he started. It needs to lean one hundred percent into urgency and never touch nostalgia.

Keanu Reeves is still committed—but for how long?

Keanu Reeves’ commitment is one of the strongest pillars supporting the franchise. The character John Wick is defined by Reeves’ physicality, stoicism, and humanity. But the commitment comes at a price—Reeves is 60 now, and the demanding stunts in every film take a toll on him. This might be his last bow in John Wick 5. That makes it all the more vital to get this entry right in the same way Chapter 4 was balanced and graceful.

A legacy on the line

Most consider John Wick: Chapter 4 to be one of the greatest action films of our time. It worked towards something resembling emotional payoff while also incorporating breathtaking set pieces and offering a conclusively satisfying arc. Now, the challenge is not to create another great action movie – it is to make one without undoing the magic of what came before.

The risk is immense – if John Wick 5 misses the mark, it risks retroactively dulling the impact of Chapter 4’s ending. On the other hand, if it gets it right, then the series could be firmly established as a masterclass in character long-form storytelling in which another ending just as impactful as the first is found.

Final bullet: Can they pull it off?

John Wick 5 is undoubtedly a risk. Still, while Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski remain involved, there is some optimism. The franchise has transformed itself in the past—this time, it must do so one last time, not by feeling ‘larger than life,’ but by digging ‘deeper’.

And perhaps, just perhaps, there’s one last bullet in the gun.