John Wick: Chapter 5 is officially in development at Lionsgate, and the movie could be the final installment in Keanu Reeves’ long-running action franchise. There have been very few updates about John Wick 5 in recent months, but one of the series’ new spinoffs has offered some crucial insight into where the story may be heading.
Importantly, it is confirmed that John Wick 5 will not return to the High Table storyline. The majority of Wick’s enemies throughout the years have somehow been related to the High Table and its subsidiaries, which suggests that John Wick 5 will introduce a new villain for Keanu Reeves to face off against. However, this doesn’t have to be the case.
The Ruska Roma Would Be A Perfect Villain For John Wick 5
Wick’s Previous Allies Don’t Seem Friendly Anymore
Following their appearance in Ballerina, it would be a huge missed opportunity if John Wick 5 didn’t bring the Ruska Roma back in some capacity. Anjelica Huston’s mysterious “Director” is one of the series’ most intriguing characters, and it only makes sense that Wick would return to the people he considers his family after surviving the encounter with the High Table at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4.
However, the events of Ballerina indicate that the Ruska Roma aren’t going to be much of an ally to Wick in the future. Not only did he directly disobey their orders regarding the elimination of Eve Maccaro (Ana de Armas), but he also saw firsthand how cold and impersonal they were willing to be about the murder of their own recruit.
This feels like something that Wick isn’t going to forget any time soon, and his unwillingness to kill Eve in Ballerina proves that he’s becoming disillusioned with the people who raised him. It’s also going to take something very personal to bring John Wick back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (presuming he faked his death in the previous movie), and the Ruska Roma have that history.
John Wick Could Team Up With Eve Maccaro In John Wick 5
A Team-Up Movie Could Be The Perfect Conclusion To Reeves’ Franchise
Bringing the Ruska Roma back for John Wick 5 also opens the door for Eve’s return, which seems like a very natural decision following the success of Ballerina. Ana de Armas has already been praised by many fans as the “next John Wick,” so it would be a mᴀssive waste if the characters didn’t continue to interact on-screen.
Bringing these two together would be such an exciting culmination of John Wick’s story, even if it’s not the end for Eve.
The conclusion of Ballerina teases a difficult future for Eve, who ended the movie with a $5 million bounty on her head. This is something that John Wick has plenty of experience with, and following their encounter in Ballerina, it would make sense for Eve to turn to Reeves’ protagonist for help.
There is also no confirmation of who placed the bounty on Eve’s head, so there’s every possibility that the Ruska Roma was somehow involved. Although The Director seemingly extinguished her feud with Eve following The Chancellor’s (Gabriel Byrne) death, the Ruska Roma as a whole may not have been so quick to forgive the rogue agent for bringing them into such a dangerous conflict.
Another team-up between John Wick and Eve Maccaro is exactly what fans have been asking for since the spinoff’s release, and it really felt like the writers were testing the waters of this pairing through Reeves’ cameo in Ballerina. Bringing these two together would be such an exciting culmination of John Wick’s story, even if it’s not the end for Eve.
John Wick 5 Could Lead Directly Into Ballerina 2
The Ballerina Sequel Needs A Little More Setup
Ultimately, the biggest draw of including Eve and the Ruska Roma in John Wick 5 is that it could effectively bridge the gap between the main series ending and the Ballerina spinoff continuing. While there’s been no official confirmation of Ballerina 2 at this time, the sequel looks extremely likely given how well-received the first movie was.
Ballerina clearly teases a sequel in its final moments, but the writers could subvert audiences’ expectations by having this lead into John Wick 5 instead of Ballerina 2. It would bring a real sense of interconnectivity to the John Wick franchise, which is something that’s crucially missing from this long-running action series.
Spinoff properties like The Continental have their strengths, but they were ultimately received with mixed reviews because they seemed insignificant to the franchise as a whole. Bringing Eve and the Ruska Roma into the main John Wick series would prevent this issue, cementing de Armas as a worthy successor and giving Ballerina a real purpose in the overarching storyline.
Strengthening the in-universe connection between Wick and Maccaro is also a very convenient way of getting audiences invested in Ballerina 2‘s storyline. At the moment, the only real ongoing narrative is Eve’s feud with The Chancellor and the subsequent bounty upon her head. Once this storyline is over, it’s hard to see how Ballerina continues.
Forging this connection between Wick and Maccaro seems like the most sensible way of tying this whole universe together while ensuring the Ballerina spinoffs have a future.
But if Eve becomes a closer ally of John Wick, that opens countless doors for future sequels in the Ballerina space of the franchise. Reeves’ protagonist has countless enemies, and these could feasibly become Eve’s enemies if she works alongside him in John Wick: Chapter 5.
Forging this connection between Wick and Maccaro seems like the most sensible way of tying this whole universe together while ensuring the Ballerina spinoffs have a future.
