Are you ready for more spin-offs revolving around John Wick? It’s already been confirmed that Ballerina will be the latest film to bank off the successful franchise, but director Chad Stahelski has signed a new deal with Lionsgate. A big part of that deal is that he’ll oversee the entire John Wick franchise across film, TV, and multimedia platforms.
John Wick is one of the most unexpected franchises to come out in recent years. When the first film originally came out, nobody expected it to be a massive hit. It wasn’t an established intellectual property and it’s been a while since Reeves had a box office hit. Reeves was a huge driving force for this project, but for anyone who saw John Wick: Chapter 4; the main character himself was officially killed off-screen. There were some teases about spinning off to new characters such as Donnie Yen, but can the franchise truly succeed without its title character?
Successful Spin-Off Franchises Do Exist
Spin-offs are nothing new. In fact, Hollywood’s bread and butter is to milk a popular IP until it’s bone dry. Films like Terminator, Alien, Rocky, and Transformers each have their own spin-offs. Some are better than others; as messy as the Terminator franchise has been, The Sarah Connor Chronicles showcased how they can capitalize off the rich lore of the series. The same thing goes for Creed. Rocky is a huge staple in the mainstream media and no one believed that the spin-offs could recapture the magic that made the original series such a huge sensation. Though none of the Creed films have yet to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar nomination, it’s still a wildly successful commercial project.
However, for all the successes that exist, there are only a few spin-offs that have managed to live up to the original’s name. Going back to Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a great series, but it was canceled due to low viewership. The films were misguided attempts to bank off the James Cameron formula. Despite having good reviews, Terminator: Dark Fate confirmed that audiences were over the franchise and the series has been on hiatus ever since.
Son of the Mask, Alien vs. Predator, Elektra, Catwoman, are just a short list of the worst spin-offs to come from popular IP. The purpose here is to say that a spin-off of John Wick can exist. If a good writer and director is on board each of these films then the series can successfully thrive off of what helped Keanu Reeves start.
The Market Has Been Flooded With John Wick Clones
Officially, The Continental is the only John Wick spin-off that exists at the moment. The current chatter around that mini-series is that it doesn’t particularly live up to the John Wick name. The style feels lost in translation and the story isn’t as entertaining as the movies. However, The Continental hasn’t killed off the uniqueness of John Wick. Since this franchise exploded into the mainstream, more movies with a similar style have been released.
Nobody, Sisu, Violent Night, Atomic Blonde, Bullet Train, and Kate are just some of the films that have taken inspiration from the John Wick movies and used them to their full advantage. Most of these films are pretty good as well. The biggest issue is that style no longer feels special because the market is now gearing towards being a John Wick clone. 87 North – the production company behind John Wick and the other movies listed above – hasn’t done the series any favors by branding their special coat of paint to other properties.
There’s a real danger in overcrowding the market with more John Wick spin-offs, even if they’re extremely good. Marvel is going through this issue because they’ve oversaturated their brand to the point where audiences are experiencing superhero fatigue. However, it doesn’t help that their recent content has been from bad to decent.
Can A John Wick World Work Without The Title Character?
No other character would be able to replace Keanu Reeves’s Wick. The actor’s dedication to the role resulted in some of the best action films ever made. However, a spin-off can work under the right circumstances. The key thing is that the respective spin-offs do not replicate the character of John Wick or follow the same path as the movies. The John Wick franchise has an intriguing lore and there’s been plenty of interesting characters that have come and gone through it.
Exploring that can result in something incredible, but the most important thing is quality. Ballerina has all the tools to be something great, but if the film falls flat then audiences can easily sour on the franchise as a whole quickly, especially since other films have been an inspiration by John Wick itself.
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