'John Wick 5' Is Happening, And Will Shoot Back To Back With 'John Wick 4'

John Wick's work won't be done by the end of the fourth movie.

During a Lionsgate earnings call today, company CEO John Feltheimer revealed that not only is a fifth Wick movie in the works, but that the studio plans to film that sequel back to back with the upcoming fourth film. Yeah, I'm thinking he's back (to back).

Deadline reports that franchise star Keanu Reeves, who previously filmed The Matrix sequels back-to-back in the early 2000s, is preparing to do it again – this time, with John Wick 4 and John Wick 5.

According to Feltheimer: "We're also busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theatres Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 & 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year."

This is our first official confirmation that the studio and the creatives behind the movie are extending the franchise beyond the fourth film. At one point, the third movie was seemingly going to be the final entry in the saga. Director Chad Stahelski said that as they were finishing John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, he and Reeves looked at each other and said, 'Okay, time to move on. Let's go do a romantic comedy or something. We're good.'" But they soon changed their minds, and because the idea they submitted for the fourth movie was "really big," in April of this year Stahelski said they were "talking about doing a little bit more than a [John Wick 4], or something like that, and trying to develop that. We'll see how that goes."

The John Wick franchise is already set to expand beyond the fourth movie with Ballerina, the first spin-off movie set in that universe. Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman is directing that one, which "focuses on a young female assassin who seeks revenge against the people who killed her family." Plus, there's the long-gestating TV series The Continental, set at the movie's chain of sleek assassin-only hotels. That show has been in the works for years, and is aiming to be released on Starz in the wake of John Wick 4.

When we last saw Reeves' John Wick at the end of the third film, he had taken a nasty fall off the top of a building and was preparing to be nursed back to health by Laurence Fishburne's Bowery King.