John Wick: Chapter 4 could make a key upgrade to the villains that John faces. The John Wick franchise is as popular as ever, with John Wick 4 on the way and the spin-off movie Ballerina in the works alongside The Continental television series. While the John Wick movies have delivered extremely well as action films, the franchise’s villains could be built upon, with the series adopting a new approach to them.
The gun fu and martial arts fights of the John Wick series have been consistently breathtaking, while Keanu Reeves’s anti-hero has fought many formidable opponents. With that said, the arch-villains of the John Wick movies have largely not gotten their own hands dirty against John himself. John Wick 4 can change that by having a principal villain who can stand their ground against the Baba Yaga.
John Wick’s Opponents Have Been Mostly Henchmen & Other Assassins
In the first three John Wick movies, the only big boss-type villain John has directly fought has been Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist) in the first John Wick. The fight did not last long, John clearly being well out of Viggo’s league in terms of fighting skill. Elsewhere in the John Wick series, John Wick’s fights with different martial arts stars have generally pitted him against either assassins on his trail or hired henchmen of the big boss.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum did slightly rework the franchise’s villain rules, with the Shinobi assassins led by Zero (Mark Dacascos) being positioned as John’s major adversaries in the film. Even still, Zero and his assassins were in the employ of the High Table’s Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon). While John’s many direct adversaries have tested his assassin skills at every opportunity, a main villain with comparable fighting skills to John’s own could be a real benefit to the John Wick franchise.
A Main Villain Fighting John Wick Would Be A Huge Development
The hierarchy of John Wick‘s assassin society places a number of figures high on the totem pole. Seeing the skills that got them there is something that the John Wick movies have not really indulged in with the power players like the Elder and the High Table, and doing so would be one of the franchise’s biggest surprises. As John’s former friend Sofia (Halle Berry) in John Wick 3 showed, management-level figures in the Continental are fully John’s assassin equals. Undoubtedly, so too are members of the High Table, which John will be battling in John Wick 4.
With Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins, and Marko Zaror joining John Wick 4, the ever-elevating scope of the John Wick series’ action scenes is bound to expand even more. For as much fun the many secondary villain and rival assassins have added to the John Wick franchise, the time has come for a major villain to step up to the plate in the John Wick: Chapter 4 High Table showdown.
Key Release Dates
John Wick: Chapter 4
Release Date:2023-03-24
