John Wick anime film confirmed

The John Wick universe is more than alive as we're about to get the answers to some of the most questions, like why Keanu Reeves' vengeful assassin retired in the first place. Setting the ground for an origin story powered by his past love life, the John Wick prequel anime has officially set sail in the development phase.

The action thriller series' co-creator Chad Stahelski, who previously worked as the other Neo in The Matrix franchise as a stunt double for his future John Wick star Reeves, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that three new projects are on the horizon.

The retired assassin's journey kicked off on the big screen a decade ago when he was forced out of retirement seeking revenge for the murder of his beloved dog, a parting gift of his recently deceased wife. And now, four movies down the line, a Len Wiseman-directed spinoff film, Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas, is also slated for a June 2025 release.

Further expanding the bloody world set around the legendary assassin's violent career, the John Wick team is developing an anime feature, a TV show and another new spinoff, Donnie Yen's Caine. With all projects simultaneously in works in the background, anime fans will presumably be attracted to one of these more than the others.

"We're knee-deep in development on a feature anime about John Wick," Stahelski told the US-based entertainment outlet.

Therefore, the project is in its very initial stages of production. A release date has yet to be determined.

Stahelski described the anime feature film, currently in works, as a prequel to the original John Wick movies. He's more than elated to be experimenting with a different medium while expanding on the character's lore and backstory.

The forthcoming project will take a deep dive into the million-dollar question of the "impossible task" that ultimately brought about Wick's retirement from his hitman roots and transition to married life. The anime medium additionally offers the creatives more leeway to go crazy and unleash explosive visuals set in the already action-packed saga.

"We can be a little bit more crazy and nutty in the anime, and we can be a lot more explicit in our storytelling and world-building on the TV show. So those are exciting to us without seeming repetitive, and that's where we're putting our energies right now," Stahelski explained.