As John Wick: Chapter 5 is set to start a brand-new era for the franchise, the movie will need to do a lot in order to justify its existence. A good story will be absolutely necessary for the series to continue in an engaging way, and the best place to start would be with another great villain.

The John Wick franchise’s villains have all been great, from the main, overarching antagonists to the individual fighters that John has had to go up against. The High Table ended up becoming the main antagonistic force throughout the four films, but it has been confirmed that John Wick 5 will leave that story behind.

So now, John Wick 5 has the difficult task of coming up with a new villain for the franchise that could actually pose a threat to the greatest ᴀssᴀssin of all time. On top of that, there is one very important innovation that the filmmakers need to take into account when coming up with this new threat.

John Wick 5’s Main Antagonist Shouldn’t Be Another Shadowy Organization

While the John Wick movies have had a number of main villains, the High Table has still been at the center of the conflict for most of them. Each movie featured more and more of the organization, leading to the four movies feeling like they had a very natural progression and buildup to the finale.

Even Ballerina, which didn’t feature the High Table as the main antagonists, introduced the Cult, which felt extremely similar. They were another secret cabal of individuals that weren’t fully seen, but had a lot of sway over most of the major players in the film.

However, now that John Wick 5 is abandoning the High Table, simply adding in another shadowed, unseen organization that was pulling all the strings would be a pretty unsatisfying continuation. John Wick 5 needs to do something different, or risk making the franchise feel far too repeтιтive.

While the Tarasov family in the first John Wick wasn’t much of a secret, as we saw the leaders right away, it was still a large organization whose power came from its numbers and influence. John Wick 5 could really benefit from pulling back on that idea and coming back with something truly new and different.

Making the villains of the next era of John Wick a much smaller organization with more grounded motivations could be interesting, but a singular threat would also be a way to refresh the franchise’s formula. The High Table was a great villainous group, but John Wick: Chapter 5 needs to find something brand-new.