Let's Talk About That John Wick: Chapter 4 Credits Scene

Warning: this post contains spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4

It has been a full four years since Keanu Reeves graced the silver screen as John Wick, the expert assassin known to others in his circle as the Boogeyman. Luckily, Lionsgate finally got through the pandemic of it all, as well as a major production, to bring us "John Wick: Chapter 4," which ranks as the biggest entry in the series to date in just about every way. It had the biggest budget ($100 million), has arguably the most impressive cast, and clocks in at nearly three hours in length. It's a huge movie.

It also breaks tradition by doing something none of the other "John Wick" movies have done: tacking on a post-credits scene. It is a very consequential scene at that, opening up a whole host of questions about the future of this universe. And yes, "universe" now seems to be the keyword, for various reasons. So, let's talk about the scene in question and what it might mean for the future, shall we?

To address the elephant in the room right up top, the movie does very much appear to kill off John Wick at the end. We see Winston (Ian McShane) and The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) literally standing at his gravestone following his duel with Marquis (Bill Skarsgard), which was actually more of a duel with Caine (Donnie Yen), because Marquis was kind of a big, fat coward the whole time. In any event, unless Lionsgate and director Chad Stahelski intend to pull one over on us and cheapen the ending of this film, Mr. Wick has finished his journey on screen.

Be that as it may, there was unfinished business to attend to, as those who stayed after the credits discovered. We see Caine, now free from his obligations to the High Table along with his daughter, with flowers in hand looking happy for perhaps the first time in the movie. Yet, just as things appear rosy, we see a well-cloaked Akira (Rina Sawayama) making a beeline for Caine with a knife in hand, ready for revenge. Lest we forget, earlier in the film, Caine killed her father Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada). Caine had no delusions as to what that meant, saying to Akira, "I'll be waiting for you."

It appears that Akira was waiting for him. Unfortunately, we don't get to see how this all plays out, as the screen cuts to black just as the confrontation is about to happen. It's a short scene, but one that does a lot of work explaining that just because John Wick is dead, it doesn't mean everything in this universe is settled. There is much to be done, and the wild world of assassins will live on without Mr. Wick.

I am not going to pretend as though I can determine whether or not Akira killed Caine based on the scene alone as we saw it. Perhaps others might have a more nuanced read of the situation, but I will be upfront in that I am not here to answer that big question. What I am here to do, however, is look at the larger meaning behind tacking on this scene to the end of a movie where the protagonist of this film series dies. In short? Lionsgate is getting ready to create an expanded universe, and these very well could be characters we follow in the future.

Might it be worth seeing what Akira does if she does (or doesn't) kill Caine? Is she going to be in charge of The Continental that her father left behind? Might there be more stories to tell there even without Mr. Wick? Though it all felt very natural and part of the story along the way, the "John Wick" films did an outstanding job of worldbuilding, and it's a world filled with fascinating characters we only got to know so well. There is much to explore, and this scene appears to be hinting at further exploration. Why leave us with cliffhangers if not to explore them? It may not be in "John Wick: Chapter 5," but other films are already on the way.

Case in point, production is already well underway on "Ballerina," a spin-off starring Ana De Armas ("Knives Out") directed by Len Wiseman ("Underworld"). Why couldn't some of these threads be pulled in the upcoming spin-off? Why couldn't Lionsgate produce other spin-offs? The possibilities are endless and this scene, if nothing else, was a strong suggestion that those possibilities will not merely be left to dangle. Get ready for the Wick-verse, as it were.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" is in theaters now.