JOHN WICK Anime Series Announced By Action Auteur Chad Stahelski Fresh off helming John Wick: Chapter 4, stuntman turned director Chad Stahelski has revealed that Lionsgate wants him to develop a John Wick anime. News By MarkJulian - Nov 12, 2023 12:11 PM EST Filed Under: Television Source: The Playlist While promoting the John Wick TV spinoff The Continental, John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski revealed that he's currently working on a tie-in anime series. Speaking to The Playlist, Stahelski opened up the conversation by speaking about another live-action television series that will be separate from The Continental. "Lionsgate is having us develop the John Wick TV show, so we thought we could explore The High Table in that a little bit." He then added, "We’re really excited about [the new spinoff] because we’re doing that and a Japanese anime because I love Japanese anime so much. So to create all the cool stories that anime could achieve better than we could and the TV show to expand our world, we’ll still get our fix, you know what I mean? And we’ll still have all the fun." With four successful films starring Keanu Reeves and a prequel television series already in existence, it looks as if Lionsgate only wants to see the John Wick franchise grow even bigger. There are a number of popular characters in the franchise including Reeves' titular assassin, Mel Gibson's Cormac O'Connor, Donnie Yen's Caine, Ana de Armas' Ballerina, and Rina Sawayama's Akira so it will be interesting to see if the anime follows one of these characters or introduces someone new. Lionsgate has not issued any additional information on the anime project so one has to wonder if Stahelski perhaps spilled the beans a little early. In the U.S., The Continental streams on the Peacock app while internationally, new episodes premiere on Amazon's Prime Video. It's likely that the new anime will also air on one of these streaming platforms. In the interview, Stahelski reveals that he's a big fan of anime and that certainly lines up with another recently announced project for the director which will see him team with legendary Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe and Studio MAPPA on a new action sci-fi anime for Adult Swim, titled Lazarus. Specifically, Stahelski is working on the action scenes for the series. Lazarus Trailer | Toonami | adult swim You can check out a promo for Lazarus above, which could provide a preview of how a John Wick anime might look. Elsewhere, Keanu is also working on an anime adaptation of his comic book, BRZRKR with Production I.G. and Netflix so there's precedent for Reeves to be involved with an anime project.
