The Upcoming JOHN WICK Sequels Will Not Be Written By Original Scribe Derek Kolstad

The John Wick franchise is moving forward without the original writer of the first three films, Derek Kolstad. He has not been a part of the writing for John Wick: Chapters 4 and 5. This wasn’t his decision, the studio and creative team just opted not to bring him back.

Kolstad offered the update during an interview with Collider in which he explained:

“At a certain stage of the studio will tell you, your creation is graduated, and you wish it well. I’m still close with Chad, still close with Dave, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m excited to see.”

When asked if it was his decision to step away, he said:

“No, it wasn’t my decision. When you think contractually of these things, the third one I shared the credit with any number of people, they didn’t have to come back to me, and so they didn’t. And so you look at that and you could be hurt, and I would say if I was 20 years ago I would have been, but seeing what the industry is and how things go, I just believe that you bless everything and hope it all the best, and to the players involved who are doing other things elsewhere. And yeah, it’s personal, so I’m never going to talk shit about John Wick. I want this thing to survive and thrive.”

It’s kind of a bummer that Kolstad wasn’t asked to come back. He did such an awesome job with the first three films and you’d think that the studio would want to keep the quality of the sequels consistent with what the fans have come to love and enjoy. But, we’ll just have to wait and see how the upcoming sequels turn out.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is currently in post-production and it’s expected to be released on May 27, 2022.