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John Wick 3 brings back Chad Stahelski to direct

Niko Tavernise

NICK ROMANO

Chad Stahelski has been directing the John Wick movies since the franchise exploded on the screen in 2014, and he’s not stopping now. The stuntman-turned-filmmaker is officially back to helm John Wick: Chapter 3.


Keanu Reeves is returning for John Wick 3, which is set to debut on May 17, 2019. EW can also confirm that there’s interest in casting Hiroyuki Sanada (HBO’s Westworld, The Wolverine), but discussions are in the very early stages. The producers haven’t made a formal offer, and Sanada is keen on reading the script first.

Stahelski got into the movie business as a stunt performer and became involved with films like Spider-Man 2, V for Vendetta, and The Hunger Games. He even worked with Reeves on The Matrix and Constantine. Stahelski co-directed the first John Wick with David Leitch and returned for John Wick: Chapter 2, while Leitch went on to direct Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde and Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2.

“We want not so much to go bigger on the third one, but to show you more of the intricacies of the world,” Stahelski teased of a third John Wick in an interview with Collider last year. “I feel like there are all these different subtleties that I skipped over in No. 2, that I’d like to go back to on [Chapter 3] and show you the inner workings of different parts of New York. So rather than massive set pieces, I’d like to show you cooler and more intricate ones.”

“I think it would be a mistake budget-wise and creatively to just go big and blow up a freeway. That’s not our gig,” he added. “That’s a comic book or a Bond gig. We want to show you cool and intricate details. What are those little details in everyday life? Hopefully, we make people look at garbage collectors and cleaner vans and homeless people a little differently now.”

Reeves floated the idea of casting his Constantine costar Tilda Swinton in Chapter 3. “We run into each other once in a while socially out there in the world. She’s a remarkable person and actress, so I’m all aboard with that!”

Stahelski is also locked and loaded to shoot the pilot for the John Wick-inspired Starz series. Called The Continental, the television expansion will focus on the inner world of the Continental Hotel for assassins.

That Hashtag Show was the first to report Stahelski’s return.