A JOHN WICK Anime Is in Development According to Franchise Director Chad Stahleski
John Wick franchise director Chad Stahleski has been teasing the expansion of the John Wick universe with multiple spinoff projects that he’d like to see get made. The filmmaker has now revealed that the property will expand with a new anime series project that’s being developed with talent from Japan. While a guest on the The Discourse podcast, the filmmaker said:
"We're really looking forward to that. We're really excited about it because we're doing... a Japanese anime because I love Japanese anime so much. So to create all the cool stories that anime can achieve better than we can, 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.
"I think for TV especially, world-building and action – those two have stayed pretty separate. But if you to try and combine them and give fans [both]? Look, I love the slow-burn too, but after six episodes, I would like something to happen in my TV shows, you know? So to try and bring that to TV what we do with features would be really exciting."
I’m excited to see how this John Wick anime turns out and see what story it will tell and how it will expand the world. When previously talking about John Wick spinoffs, Stahelski said they could explore Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King and Halle Berry’s Sofia Al-Azwar, and more:
“I love the world of the homeless, I love The Bowery King’s world, if there’s ways to tie that together to its own thing, I don’t know what that is yet. I like the worlds we haven’t explored yet, like I love China. I love Hong Kong. I love the idea of tongs and triads, and all the history of Kung Fu and all this, there’s a world there to be explored. And that’s something I think we’re [trying to do], we’re currently developing the John Wick TV show now, I think these worlds are going to be explored there. I love Rina Sawayama’s character, I like the hint of that, I would love to see the prequel to Halle Berry’s character in the third one. I love, love, love Jimmy the cop, I love Charlie, David Patrick Kelly’s character, the cleaner. I love John Leguizamo’s Aurelio in the first one.
“There’s these cool little worlds that haven’t been poked or prodded enough, I think. Now to do their own thing, I don’t know, but I’d like to bring them back in other storylines, and I think that’s why we’re so interested and so game to do a TV show, is to bring all these people in and about the world.”
The John Wick franchise is strong and it has a large dedicated audience. Stahleski could really do anything he wanted with the franchise because Lionsgate wants more of it as well! It’s just a matter of properly developing the stories for these projects and making sure that they reach the same level of excellence as the films that have been made.
Are you excited about seeing a John Wick anime?