One Underdog Action Franchise Is Taking A Big Risk With A New Spinoff
John Wick might be taking a page from The Mandalorian.
John Wick’s action energy was unrivaled in the main movies starring Keanu Reeves, but now that those movies are seemingly over and done with, there are some doubts that the John Wick universe can recapture the same magic without its namesake character. Both The Continental and Ballerina were passable projects, but paled in comparison to the behemoths that are the mainstream John Wick movies, casting doubt on the future of the franchise as a whole.
But an offhand mention of a new, mysterious project could provide the shot in the arm it needs to stay innovative and stay relevant, this time in an entirely new genre.
John Wick became a modern action classic, but can its spinoff gain the same reputation?
In Variety’s article highlighting “10 Screenwriters to Watch for 2025,” Austin Everett, writer of the upcoming Lee Isaac Chung movie The Traveler, spoke about his upcoming projects, including a movie about a woman who purchases an abandoned building in Japan only to realize that it’s haunted, something he described as “if Studio Ghibli made The Conjuring.”
But the most exciting announcement is that Everett has penned a “samurai Western” movie set in the John Wick universe. “That’s probably as much as I can say,” Everett said, but even that is exciting. Of course, this project is still in early development, as scripts are written and not produced all the time, so it’s worth taking it with a grain of salt.
Screenwriter Austin Everett has written a John Wick “samurai Western” spinoff.
But even if this movie doesn’t make it to the screen, it’s an important insight into what the John Wick universe is becoming. Without John Wick himself, this franchise could become a launching-off point for different original stories and, more excitingly, different genres and settings. A samurai western movie is sure to find an audience, especially since smash hit Star Wars series The Mandalorian is based on a similar premise, albeit in space.
Hopefully, we’ll see this story come to life with a big name to carry it. If this is the future of the John Wick universe, then it’s possible we could find another successful story that can carry that legacy into the future.
