It’s been three years since the last John Wick movie ended with our protagonist falling headfirst from the top of the Continental building onto the New York asphalt. The deadly assassin has no doubt sustained many injuries — perhaps mostly to his pride — but if Winston and the rest of the High Table think they can so easily get rid of the Wick-storm, they have another thing coming.
In fact, according to what director Chad Stahelski has told Collider in a recent chat, the as-of-yet untitled Chapter 4 will be the longest movie in the series. Considering that Parabellum was 2 hours and 11 minutes, then the next installment is going to run for at least that amount, and then some. Stahelski also gave an overall update on the state of post-production, revealing that they’re almost finished with the final cut.
“We’re on the final stretch for picture lock, and then we have our VFX music. But this is the furthest along I’ve ever been, this much in post. We love the music that we’ve got so far. We still have Tyler Bates doing the composition on some of the bigger sequences. VFX are going to be coming in throughout the rest of the year. But we’re dangerously close. In our edit, as far as our picture lock goes, we’re within a few minutes of locking. Our sequences are done. The movie is essentially done. There’s probably another few weeks of tweaking overall, then we lock picture, and we’re about music sound and the effects.”
Since John Wick essentially boils down to the titular lead going from corridor to corridor murdering dozens and dozens of rather incompetent henchmen, then packing more of that into the fourth entry is only going to amplify the experience, if not entirely elevate it.
Despite Stalehski and his team being a few weeks away from celebrating their work, we’re still a long way away from John Wick: Chapter 4 as the movie is slated for release on March 24, 2023.