The John Wick Cinematic Universe

[Neon Ignition]

The John Wick Cinematic Universe Movie List
(In Release Order if Known - Bolded Movies are Released)

01 - John Wick
02 - John Wick: Chapter Two
03 - John Wick: Chapter Three - Parabellum
04 - John Wick: Chapter Four
05 - Ballerina (06 June 2025)
06 - Caine (TBC)




The John Wick Cinematic Universe In Development List


-John Wick: Chapter Five
-John Wick: Live Action Series II
-John Wick: Animated Series
-Ballerina II




The John Wick Cinematic Universe Timeline:
(As Best Calculated) - Italics TV Series

The Continental
01-John Wick
02-John Wick: Chapter Two
03-John Wick: Chapter Three - Parabellum
04-Ballerina
05-John Wick: Chapter Four

[Neon Ignition]

"John Wick" Team Plan Two New Series - Dark Horizons
Two new series are in development as efforts continue to rapidly expand the worldbuilding around John Wick.


Following on from the success of this summers event series, The Continental, one of the new shows will be another live action effort which will delve a little more into the High Table. The animated second project will be anime based and Chad Stahelski is involved in both projects having not been involved in The Continental.

[Finsbury Girl]

Finally got around to watching #3 last night in anticipation of #4 since it is now on (2!) streaming services that I am reluctantly paying for.

My impressions haven't changed It's really bad. Like really, really bad. The main problem is the story is just non-existent. The reason why 1 worked so well, it had a proper story, man's wife dies, wife gives man dog, random encounter leads to man dog being killed, man turns out to be retired assassin, kicks arse and takes names via some innovative and super cool gun fu, takes revenge on baddies, gets new doggo. Job done. Not too much "lore" just enough to think wow this is mysterious and cool. Action was tight relatively grounded and choreography suited the style we didn't see too much hand to hand which suits non martial artists.

#3 was the complete opposite, slow, too wide shots, hand to hand fighting looks like it is in molasses and dudes stand there and wait their turn to strike (too obviously) The stuff with Halle Berry whilst I commend for trying just looks really ****en bad. They also use the same gun play over and over and over and over, so much so that it is just plain boring. It is not novel anymore.

The story, well what story. This is a directionless and incoherent set of action scenes stuck together. A damn shame. And finally (I'm probably repeating myself from previous threads) the use of Mark Dacascos was terrible. The epic fight was completely ridiculous, John starts out he cannot even hit him and all of a sudden he gets his arse kicked. The great martial arts movies get this right - the 2 are not mismatched (at the end of the movie, not at the beginning where normally the hero gets his arse kicked by the baddie and then realises he has to go train with the Shaolin temple/legendary kung fu master etc etc) But at the final dual things are relatively balanced and there is back and forth with both belligerents giving and taking but with the baddie generally edging closer to the win but the hero/ine finds that inner strength/special technique/spots the weakness and wins the day - not out of the blue, so it is (mostly) believable (in the context of the movie). Anyway in this movie none of that happens, John is a mere plaything until suddenly he isn't. Very frustrating as with some proper writing, action and direction it could've been a contender.

Anyway enough ranting. I HOPE this is rectified in #4. I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Neon Ignition]

4 has a story, it's just not the one it should have

[fuse]

This post could go in about 50 different topics, but for me there is no two word turn-off bigger in our current media landscape than "cinematic universe". I'm still planning to give 4 a shot, and a few people have said things that have reassured me about it, but the whole appeal of the first movie to me was that it was a good action movie that was fresh and not bogged down in building up this intricate world. It's been a downhill trajectory since then, and nothing really summed that up for me as succinctly as when I stuck on the first episode of The Continental with my partner, who's not watched any Wick-things before, and who clearly struggled to understand why I gave two hoots about any of it all.

The reason why 1 worked so well, it had a proper story, man's wife dies, wife gives man dog, random encounter leads to man dog being killed, man turns out to be retired assassin, kicks arse and takes names via some innovative and super cool gun fu, takes revenge on baddies, gets new doggo. Job done. Not too much "lore" just enough to think wow this is mysterious and cool. Action was tight relatively grounded and choreography suited the style we didn't see too much hand to hand which suits non martial artists.

YEP.

[Neon Ignition]

The biggest problem is that I think the MCU is the only instance where one has been intentionally created from inception and worked. Making the decision from ground zero to create a cinematic universe is a bit like making a new original film and pre-deciding that it will recieve 40 successful sequels. There are so few examples of successful CU's and outside of Marvel they were pretty much formed after the original attempt. They're trying to do it with John Wick but the trouble is that Wick's world, despite where we're at now, remains puddle deep and pretty much solely rested on Keanu's shoulders.

The only other truly successful CU is The Conjuring's which made the correct move of first branching into a spin-off. The focus was firmly on the mainline films followed by keeping the building based on branching from them. Even with the most recent entry, The Nun II, it's a pretty standalone film for the most part but the CU fun is on how it fits within the timeline of the overall franchise and the tease that its sequel will dovetail back into the mainline (like the Annabel trilogy did) so it's much more focused and easier to follow or not as you please to.


Given where The Marvels has landed this week, those planning a new CU now should really stop and think first. Especially the new DCU, a reboot is welcome there but if Disney and Marvel are proving one thing this year it's that tying all media to one universe is an audience turn off. Gunn needs to rethink that plan asap.

[wakka]

"Cinematic universes" are the GaaS of movies.

[Neon Ignition]

Multiversal variants will be like paying for alt skins

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Chad Stahelski to have Creative Oversight of ‘John Wick’, ‘Highlander’ Franchise – Deadline
He will now oversee all expansions of the Wick universe as well as the upcoming Highlander reboot

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McShane Dismisses "Wick" Prequel "Continental" - Dark Horizons
Lovejoy has neither for The Continental

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"John Wick" Spin-Off Delayed A Year - Dark Horizons
Stahelski will work with Wiseman to add additional action scenes to the film

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.thewrap.com/donnie-yen-john-wick-spin-off-film/

Donnie Yen is to get his own spin-off following Caine after the events of Chapter Four