One of the greatest action trilogies in the last decade is showing no signs of losing velocity as fans of the John Wick series await the release of the fourth installment. The neo-noir John Wick debuted in 2014, and starred Keanu Reeves as the world’s greatest assassin leaving retirement to enact vengeance after petty thugs killed his puppy. Though its premise may have seemed thin, it became a critically acclaimed hit due to its strong visual aesthetics, beautiful action sequences, and colorful performances by a memorable cast.
The stakes are raised with each new John Wick film, and the titular hero gets pulled deeper and deeper into a world of assassins and intrigue he thought he left behind for good. Branded a traitor to the assassin’s guild that employed him, he’s been on the run since John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. With John Wick: Chapter 4 premiering on May 21, 2021, here are 10 Storylines we want to be resolved.
AURELIO FIXING JOHN WICK’S MUSTANG
There’s only one thing that John Wick loved more than the beagle puppy his deceased wife gave him; his black Mustang. In John Wick, he’s compelled to go on a killing spree to take revenge on the thugs who killed his puppy and mangled his car.
He takes his prized cruiser to Aurelio, a longtime friend and chop-shop owner. Aurelio assures Wick it can be restored, it’ll just take time. By the second film, it still hadn’t been done, though Aurelio did receive a message of John becoming “Excommunicado” by the High Table, which might have persuaded him to hold off on finishing his assignment. Here’s hoping Wick gets his wheels back in John Wick 4.
WINSTON VS JOHN WICK
At the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, an unfortunate stand-off occurs between John Wick and Winston, the manager of The Continental. In order for John Wick to continue to operate under the High Table, he has to kill Winston. In order for Winston to keep his hotel, he has to kill Wick.
At a parley directly following bloodshed with High Table operatives, the Adjudicator witnesses Winston put several bullets in John Wick that make him plunge from the hotel rooftop. Wick miraculously survives, and the ending is left purposefully ambiguous whether or not he was double-crossed by Winston, or if his death was staged to help him escape.
JOHN WICK VS THE ELDER
In order to regain the privileges that were revoked in John Wick Chapter 2, he had to seek out The Elder in the middle of the Moroccan desert. The Elder, the esteemed founder of the High Table, allowed him to re-enter the assassin’s guild provided he pledge his service to him.
Wick agreed, demonstrating his devotion by removing his wedding ring finger (ring included). His mission? To kill Winston. Watching John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, we know he didn’t succeed. No doubt The Elder has gotten wind of this and will send enforcers after Wick.
THE ADJUDICATOR VS THE BOWERY KING
After John Wick received assistance from the Bowery King despite being “Excommunicado”, the Adjudicator was sent by the High Table to question him. Because he broke regulation in aiding and abetting a known fugitive of the guild, he was given the punishment of seven cuts.
Forcibly given blows that should have killed him, a deeply lacerated Bowery King nevertheless appears at the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, incredibly “pissed off” at the Adjudicator, the High Table, and everything they stand for. Here’s hoping him and Wick join forces and enact vengeance.
JOHN WICK VS THE HIGH TABLE
John Wick only ever desired to be free of his former life as a contract assassin, but it appears with each passing film he’ll never truly be free of service to the High Table. The only way would be to systematically and methodically destroy it and the entire assassin’s guild.
This cannot be done by taking out each assassin that the High Table sends after him - that would be a zero sum challenge. Instead, he has to assassinate members of the High Table. He has to burn the entire system to the ground and rebuild. Only then can he walk away.
THE FATE OF THE DIRECTOR
Despite being “Excommunicado”, John Wick receives help from a variety of sources, including The Director, who heads up the Ruska Roma faction of assassins under the High Table. She trains both gifted assassins and talented ballet dancers (one seems to benefit the other), and is John Wick’s adopted mother.
He is able to present her with a crucifix and rosary in exchange for her punching his “ticket”, a gilded and nebulous way of saying she helps him get out of town under the High Table’s nose. She is punished for her actions by The Adjudicator, but it remains to be seen if she’ll return and help “Jardani” again.
THE FATE OF ZERO, ARES, AND THE OTHER ASSASSINS
As elite an assassin as John Wick is, he’s still been given worthy fights by a number of his colleagues. Some, like Cassian from John Wick: Chapter 2 lived to fight another day, but others like Ares, were left in an ambiguous state at the end of their encounter.
One of John Wick’s most formidable opponents was Zero, whom he left with a sword in his chest (albeit still breathing) at the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. There’s a slim chance Zero survived, and if he did would he, Ares, and other assassins join Wick in his rebellion against the High Table in the next chapter?
WINSTON TAKING ON THE HIGH TABLE
Since many fans believe that Winston couldn’t have possibly wanted to kill John Wick, and instead helped him stage his own death to escape The Adjudicator and her operatives, it’s possible that he will decide to aid Wick and the Bowery King in taking the fight to his superiors.
As he cheerfully explained at the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, the operatives that conduct their business under his purview are “New York City”, which may prove to be an even greater force of rebellion than the High Table realizes.
CONSEQUENCES OF SOFIA HELPING JOHN WICK
When John Wick arrives in Morocco, he seeks out Sofia, a former assassin and colleague who is now the manager of the city’s own Continental hotel. He produces a marker, signed with her blood-binding fingerprint, and reminds her that she has a debt owed to him.
She begrudgingly repays this debt to John, and Wick ends up owing her a favor in return (as is the cyclical nature of these transactions in the John Wick Universe). What viewers don’t see is what happens to Sofia after she provides John Wick aid, and more importantly, what happens to her daughter.
JOHN WICK FINDING CLOSURE
On more than one occasion, John Wick has said the only thing that keeps him going is the memory of his late wife. If he can fight to remain alive, then she remains alive also in a figurative sense. But how long can someone keep fighting to preserve a memory?
John Wick will either have to die eventually, or find something else to live for. He’s impervious to death at the moment, gaining such a reputation in the assassin community that many don’t think he’s human. But even the Baba Yaga is fallible to a degree, and seeing Wick’s more human side, perhaps through a new love story, would add something more to the films.
