If John Wick 5 Is Keanu Reeves' Final Movie, He Has A Perfect Replacement Franchise Already Lined Up

Published Sep 27, 2026, 7:31 AM EDT

Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel. 

Spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4!Despite the ending of John Wick: Chapter 4, Keanu Reeves is coming back as the legendary hitman for the upcoming John Wick 5, but if that is the final outing for the character, Reeves has another action film lined up that could wind up being his next big action movie franchise.

At the end of John Wick: Chapter 4, Wick collapses from the injuries he sustained over the course of the final fight. In film parlance, that generally means a hero has died. Money talks in Hollywood, though, and the box office success of the film seems to have cajoled Reeves and creator Chad Stahelski into going back to the well.

Not a lot is known about the unofficially titled John Wick 5, but we do know that Reeves will return to star. While betting against John Wick surviving is never a great play, either in the films or in real life, every subsequent movie definitely raises the odds. If John Wick 5 is well and truly the end, Reeves can just hop to another action film with franchise capabilities.

Reeves is set to star in Kill Current, an upcoming action thriller with no release date currently. The film is an adaptation of Oliver Lowe's upcoming novel, Kill Current: A Jon Hendricks Thriller. Erig Feig's The Arena, an independent studio, will co-produce Kill Current along with Keanu Reeves' new production company, Two Dragonflies.

This will be the first film under Two Dragonflies, which Reeves heads alongside Alexandra Grant. Little is known about Kill Current, though The Arena released a teaser for the film on YouTube. This could be the lead-in to a whole new action franchise for Keanu Reeves, post-John Wick, if John Wick ever ends, that is.

Kill Current Can Be Keanu Reeves' Next Major Action Thriller Franchise

Via MovieStillsDB

Kill Current: A Jon Hendricks Thriller is just the beginning of a planned franchise of books. Kill Current is set for publication in May 2027. The first book follows Hendricks, a burned-out CIA officer who is forced back to work when his protégé is lost. A globe-hopping thriller, Hendricks deals with changing alliances and backstabbings.

The book is concerned with many of the contemporary problems of today. Semiconductors, supply chains, and the race for technological domination are key elements of the book, and presumably the rest of the series. Author Oliver Lowe, which is a pen name for Casey Stegman, has published several novels before this.

A proven talent, there's little doubt Lowe can continue writing more stories in the Jon Hendricks series. If the first film is a success, this could be the start of an exciting new collaboration between Reeves and another storyteller who knows how to use his talents.

Why John Wick 5 Should Be The End Of John's Story

At the end of John Wick 4, it appears that John has died, though there is enough ambiguity to suggest that he could have survived his wounds. What the ending lacks in film language to confirm his death, it makes up for in thematic language, because at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4, John has finally found the peace he's been looking for.

John Wick 5 will have to roll back some of the progress the character has made if it wants to put Wick in a similar situation as the previous four films, or it will have to gamble on audiences being ok with Wick being at a very different stage in his life. Successful or not, at least Reeves can fall back on Kill Current.