‘John Wick 5’ Is a New Story and ‘Not a Continuation With the High Table,’ Says Director: ‘John Has Dealt With His Grief. It’ll Be Really Different’

The plot of “John Wick 5” may not be exactly what fans expect.

In a recent discussion with Empire, franchise director Chad Stahelski said the fifth “John Wick” installment will be “really different” since the High Table storyline from the first four films reached its natural conclusion.

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“The saga of John Wick was pretty wrapped up,” Stahelski said. “So the only way to do a [fifth film] is to have a new story that involves John Wick. It’s not a continuation with the High Table. John dealt with his grief. It will be really different, and everybody [will] see the trailer and go, ‘Holy fuck… I gotta see that.’”

Luckily for fans, there is plenty of John Wick content on the horizon to tide them over until the fifth film, including “Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas, the “Under The High Table” TV show and an animated prequel film about Wick’s exit from being a full-time assassin. Stahelski added that the “High Table” series and the animated project will play a big role in setting up the story for “John Wick 5.”

“The John Wick TV show and the animation are big priorities,” Stahelski said. “Our idea is to try some things and explore some threads and use those two properties to catapult us forward into the ideas for ‘John 5.’”

The next Wick-verse project to hit theaters will be “Ballerina,” which debuts June 6. Set after the events of “John Wick: Chapter 3,” the film follows de Armas as an “assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization [who] sets out to seek revenge after her father’s death,” according to the official logline.

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