John Wick 4 opens in theaters and there are many who want to take the opportunity to catch up with the saga. Starring Keanu Reeves, the franchise has become one of the most important action movies in theaters, and has been triumphing since 2014 thanks to the good work of its director Chad Stahelski.
However, there is still a lot to do in the saga. Lionsgate has already announced that there will be a fifth installment -in fact, the initial intention was to shoot it together with 4, but COVID did not allow it-, and several spin-offs have been confirmed that will continue to expand this world of action.
But how can you catch up with John Wick? The truth is that, for the moment, there is not much mystery, since all the installments have been released in chronological order. However, as spin-offs are still to come, it’s interesting to take a look back at the saga.
John Wick – 2014
The first John Wick movie follows the character played by Keanu Reeves, a former hitman who is grieving over the recent death of his wife. When thugs steal his car and kill his dog, a gift from his deceased wife, Wick decides to return to his former life in search of revenge.
John Wick is known in the underworld as “Baba Yaga,” a legend among assassins for being the best at what he does. His quest for revenge leads him to confront his former boss, Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), who wants to protect his son, Iosef (Alfie Allen), the man responsible for stealing the car and killing the dog.
The film follows John Wick as he uses his skills and knowledge of the underworld to exact revenge on those who have wronged him, taking on all sorts of enemies along the way. As John gets closer to his ultimate goal, he realizes that not everyone in the underworld is bad, and he begins to form an alliance with other characters, such as Marcus (Willem Dafoe), a former partner.
The first film in the saga is available on HBO Max and Movistar+.
John Wick 2: Blood Pact
The John Wick sequel picks up the story where the first film ended, with Keanu Reeves’ character attempting to retire from the underworld to live a quiet life. However, he is soon contacted by a former colleague named Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) who demands that he repay a past debt.
Wick refuses at first, but D’Antonio has his house blown up by a bomb and makes him rethink the deal. The mobster tasks Wick with assassinating his own sister, Gianna D’Antonio (Claudia Gerini), who has taken control of his family’s crime syndicate. Despite the complications and challenges in his path, John Wick accepts the job and enters the criminal world once again.
The film stands out as one of the best in the action genre, both for its fast-paced scenes and its focus on loyalty and unpaid debts in the criminal world. In his quest for revenge, John Wick faces dangerous enemies in Rome, including security chief Cassian (Common) and the mysterious Ares (Ruby Rose).
The second film in the saga is available on Amazon Prime Video.
John Wick 3: Parabellum
The third installment of John Wick arrived in 2019 and begins right after the events of the second installment, where John Wick is declared excommunicated for murdering a member of the international assassin organization known as “The Table.”
Wick has a $14 million bounty on his head and finds himself in a race against time to find a way to escape New York City, while being pursued by an army of assassins and bounty hunters.
The plot features a richly detailed world and a deeper exploration of the secret society of assassins that has developed in the first two films. In addition, the story follows Wick as he attempts to find a way out of his desperate situation and clear his name, while facing dangerous enemies such as Zero (Mark Dacascos), an assassin fanatic of Japanese culture who is obsessed with Wick.
The third film in the saga is available on Amazon Prime Video.
John Wick 4
The fourth film of the saga has just arrived in theaters and, considering the path followed by the rest of the installments, it will be released after a few months on Amazon Prime Video. With almost 3 hours of footage, this is the longest film in the franchise, although it also looks like it will be the most spectacular and will connect directly with the future fifth part. The synopsis we have for the film is as follows:
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) discovers a way to defeat the High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face a new enemy with powerful alliances around the world and forces that turn old friends into enemies.
Ballerina
There’s no doubt that John Wick is Keanu Reeves’ thing, but over the course of the installments it has expanded a lot more with awesome supporting characters. As a result, new spin-offs are set to take place that will expand its universe.
Ballerina will be the first of these spin-offs, and will tell the story of a young girl trained as an assassin since childhood who seeks revenge against those who killed her entire family. A vendetta story, therefore, that goes beyond the death of a pet.
The film will be directed by Len Wiseman and written by Parabellum screenwriter Shay Hatten. It will star none other than Oscar nominee Ana de Armas, and will explore the underworld of criminal dancers that appeared slightly in the third film of the franchise.
There is no release date for the film yet, but it will most likely be released sometime in 2024, then released on Amazon Prime Video.
The Continental
The other John Wick spin-off will be The Continental, a series that will serve as a prequel to the franchise and will be produced by Star+. But, even though Star+ is part of Disney+, the international rights to the series have been sold to Amazon Prime Video, so we will be able to watch it through this platform.
The plot of the series will revolve around the hotel that houses and shelters the killers of the saga. We could already see it in the third part, and now we will explore it further through the international network that is around The Continental. Still, the series will not follow the current regent played by Halle Berry, but by the previous one of Ian McShane’s character.
Thus, the prequel will follow Winston Scott four decades before the series. We will see, by the looks of it, his path to the Continental or even how he created it in New York. Although we have no further details, it will most likely arrive in late 2024 at the earliest.
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