John Wick creator Derek Kolstad is not writing the next two movies in the hit action series. Kolstad created the character, played by Keanue Reeves, and has written or co-written every film in the John Wick franchise to date.
The news comes via an interview with Collider to promote Kolstad’s new movie Nobody. Kolstad was asked about his involvement with John Wick 4 and 5, which will be directed by Chad Stahelski and will shot back-to-back this year. Kolstad revealed that while it wasn’t his choice not to write the movies, he’s very aware of how Hollywood works.
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“It wasn’t my decision,” he said. “When you think of the contractually of these things, the third one I shared the credit with any number of people, they didn’t have to come back to me, and so they didn’t.
“You look at that and you could be hurt, and I would say if I was 20 years ago, I would have been. But seeing what the industry is and how things go, I just believe that you bless everything and hope it all the best, and to the players involved who are doing other things elsewhere. And yeah, it’s personal, so I’m never going to talk s*** about John Wick. I want this thing to survive and thrive.”
John Wick 4 hits theaters in May 2022, and will star Keanu Reeves once more. John Wick 5 doesn’t currently have a release date.
Kolstad was also asked about the John Wick spin-off series The Continental. The show has been in development at Starz for several years, but there has been no news about it for nearly a year. While Kolstad didn’t reveal any new details, he did state that there will be “some pretty large announcements in the next couple of weeks in regards to what’s going to happen there.”
There’s also a John Wick spin-off movie titled Ballerina in development. This project was announced in October 2019 and will focus on a young female assassin who is out for revenge after her family is massacred. It’s written by Shay Hatten, who was one of the writers hired for John Wick Chapter 3.
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