John Wick Anime and TV Show Separate From The Continental Are in the Works, Says Director

As the John Wick-verse continues to expand, it looks like an anime and another TV show that’s separate from The Continental are on the horizon.

Chad Stahelski, who directed all four John Wick films, said as much in an upcoming episode of The Discourse podcast, according to The Playlist. Talking about how TV is such a good format to explore the growing world of John Wick, he said, “Lionsgate is having us develop the John Wick TV show, so we thought we could explore The High Table in that a little bit.”

When asked if it’s separate from The Continental, the prequel series that debuted on Peacock in September, he confirmed that it’s “completely separate,” going on to name-drop some of the standout characters from John Wick: Chapter 4.

Yeah, I love Donnie [Yen], I love Rina [Sawayama], love the Tracker (Shamier Anderson).

“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,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be John Wick, the character specific, you know what I mean, so that we can explore all that stuff.”

We should note that Yen previously said he would “love” to do a John Wick spinoff centered on Caine, so… who knows!

Stahelski then revealed even more plans for the franchise, saying 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,” he said.

IGN has reached out to Lionsgate, the studio behind John Wick, to see if it has further comment.

The John Wick Universe Grows and Grows

While John Wick: Chapter 4 might’ve seemed like the end for this franchise, that’s been anything but the case. Lionsgate continues to invest more and more in other projects set in the world, with Ana de Armas spinoff Ballerina set to open on June 7, 2024.

The studio and producers have also confirmed that they’re working on John Wick 5, but that seems to be extremely early days. Back in June, John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk told me that they’re still trying to iron out what that story could actually be following the events of John Wick: Chapter 4.

“I think that there’s no question that it’s in development, but right now the story isn’t there yet,” he said at the time. “And until the story is there, it isn’t… It’s real on something we’re trying to figure out. But we haven’t settled on what that movie looks like or feels like.”

He further reassured us that the studio and creative team is being “very methodical and very smart about how we do it and not go for the quick buck.”

For more on the John Wick-verse, check out our review of The Continental.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.