‘John Wick’ Animated Prequel Greenlit With Keanu Reeves Set to Return

Lionsgate has greenlit to an animated "John Wick" prequel, and Keanu Reeves is coming back to voice the hitman.

The film, still untitled, takes place years before the events of the first one, and will dramatize the "Impossible Task" — the single night in which Wick wiped out all of his rivals to buy his way out from under the High Table and earn a life with Helen.

Shannon Tindle ("Ultraman: Rising," "Kubo and the Two Strings") is directing. The script now comes from cousins Ryan and Kaz Firpo, best known for Marvel's "Eternals” (uh oh) who replace Vanessa Taylor ("The Shape of Water"), the writer originally attached. No release date yet.

Back in March 2025, when Lionsgate confirmed "John Wick 5," Iwrote that the studio would be "milking the Wick-verse ad nauseam." Twenty months later, we’ve already had "The Continental," the 2023 Peacock prequel series nobody talks about anymore. Then came Ana De Armas’ "Ballerina" which bombed in June 2025. Donnie Yen's "Caine" was shot this spring and is now in post. "John Wick: Under the High Table," a TV series set right after "Chapter 4," is in the works. "John Wick 5" is in development, despite Wick being dead. And now, an animated prequel.

Reeves said flatly in 2025 that the character was dead. A prequel sidesteps the problem entirely. Reeves is 62, and "Chapter 4" was a punishing, nearly three-hour movie; voicing Wick in a booth requires no stunts. Lionsgate gets Keanu's name on a poster. That’ll do, for now. And, let’s remember, earlier this year, Fogelson was already telling Business Insider that a fifth film was potentially happening. The clock is ticking.

That said, Tindle is a real animation talent — and making an R-rated animated gun-fu John Wick movie has potential. Maybe this turns out great. We’ll see. That being said, Lionsgate is milking this IP with everything they got.