- From the World of John Wick: Ballerina doesn’t set up events to come in John Wick Chapter 5
- Ballerina‘s position on the John Wick timeline made that impossible, its director admits
- John Wick icon Ian McShane says discussions are ongoing about the titular hitman’s next story
There were never any discussions about how From the World of John Wick: Ballerina could set up John Wick Chapter 5.
That’s according to Ballerina director Len Wiseman, who told TechRadar such a scenario was due to Ballerina‘s position on the John Wick timeline.
For those who might not be aware: Ballerina is set between John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum and John Wick Chapter 4. Chronologically, that means it’s the fourth film that fans should watch as part of any Wick-Verse movie marathon. For more information on that front, check out my guide on how to watch the John Wick movies in order.
But I digress. With Ballerina‘s story wrapping up before John Wick Chapter 4 begins, it wouldn’t make sense for the Ana de Armas-led installment to pave the way for Keanu Reeves’ next outing as the titular assassin.
When I asked if there were ever any plans to set up John Wick Chapter 5‘s plot within Ballerina’s story or via a post-credits scene, Wiseman replied: “With this, we were solely focused on what Ballerina‘s story was.
“Because it straddles the third and fourth John Wick films, there weren’t any conversations about what this necessarily does for John Wick Chapter 5. So, no, we just focused on this story and how to bring the character of Eve into this world.”
That isn’t to say that internal talks have taken place about what John Wick 5‘s story could be. In a separate interview, I asked Ian McShane, who’s played The Continental New York manager Winston Scott in the franchise’s five movies so far, if he’d heard anything about the next Reeves-fronted installment, which is still in the very early stages of development.
“There are a lot of options,” McShane teased. “But nobody seems to know what’s going on with it at the moment.
“Of course, they [John Wick’s chief creative team] want it to go on for as long as possible. There’s an anime movie that’ll be great, and there’s a possible TV series called Under the High Table, which I believe they’re delivering the scripts for right about now.
“I don’t think anybody thought the John Wick universe would become as big as it is,” McShane added, “And now it’s about keeping the monster under control while expanding it in new directions. That’s why we’ve got this film Ballerina, which I think Len [Wiseman] did a very good job with, and Ana [de Armas] is fantastic in. You have to have fresh blood coming into franchises like this to help it grow.”
In short, we’ll just have to wait for more details from the ‘gun-fu’ series’ creators about what John Wick Chapter 5 will entail. In the meantime, get ready to watch From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, aka one of 2025’s most exciting new movies, which will make its worldwide theatrical debut on Friday, June 6.