Chad Stahelski is prioritising ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ before work begins on the fifth movie.
It was recently revealed that a fifth film in the action series – which stars Keanu Reeves as the titular assassin – was in the works and will be filmed back-to-back with the fourth instalment, although the filmmaker is determined to focus on one project at a time.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, Chad said of working on two films consecutively: "There’s the studio business side of things where, of course, I think they think Keanu and I are getting on in our years, so they’re going to try to do two back to back.
"That’s interesting. It’s very flattering. I’m psyched that I have a studio behind me that wants to keep making ‘John Wicks’."
The 51-year-old director added: "The way Keanu and I approach it with our writing team is, ‘Look, we have ideas, but it’s not like I’m working with two sets of writers on two movies.’
"We’re going to write a really good number four. If a really good number four feels solid to Keanu and I, we’ll make that one. That doesn’t mean we won’t plan on a five or start writing five, but we want to make sure we have a solid story."
Chad explained that he wants to have a clear idea for each film, rather than putting elements of each story together.
He said: "The worst thing you can do is ‘I got five ideas. I’m going to put two in number four and put three in number five’. I don’t want to try and stretch into two movies. I want to have solid ideas.
"So we’re attacking number four with everything we have. If there’s anything left on the table, we’ll fully attack number five."