John Wick 4 Breaks Its Post-Credit Scene Tradition…By Actually Having One

Warning: This article contains MAJOR spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4.

John Wick: Chapter 4 does many things that the previous movies in the franchise have not, and one of them is to feature a post-credit scene. In a time when many movies take the opportunity to give fans something a little extra after sitting through several minutes of names that they will never remember, the John Wick saga has resisted the urge to do that until now. Which is ironic considering it does so after killing off its title character.

In a twist that no one saw coming, especially considering a fifth movie was originally planned to film back to back with John Wick: Chapter 4, Keanu Reeves’ assassin literally fights to the death with his adversary Marquis de Gramont. While there are still plenty of gaps within his “death” to allow Wick to return in future if a fifth movie is on the cards, the post-credits scene suggests that the franchise could be headed in a new direction.

The post-credit scene finds assassin Caine in Paris, having seemingly moved on from the death of Wick and Osaka Continental Hotel manager Koji by his own hand. As Caine heads to see his daughter, Koji’s daughter Akira is seen approaching with a switchblade in hand as she intends to extract her own revenge on Caine after Wick spared him. While the scene cuts to black before revealing how the encounter plays out, it does potentially set up Akira as a major part of any fifth movie in the franchise.

Related: Keanu Reeves Accidentally ‘Cut a Gentleman’s Head Open’ During John Wick Stunt Gone Wrong

Is John Wick Really Dead?

That is a question that will seemingly remain debatable until a decision is made over whether to make John Wick 5. The movie’s ending could be seen as a definite, bold conclusion to the franchise and with director Chad Stahelski having previously hinted that the death of John Wick was the only possible way the franchise could eventually end, it could well be that the grave seen being stood over by Winston (Ian McShane) and The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburn) with John Wick’s name on it could well contain his body.

However, Stahelski has also teased that they could be another meaning behind the grave that could mean Wick is still alive and waiting to be drawn back to the world of assassins again. The director recently told Comicbook.com that there is a “duality” to the character that means “there’s John, there’s John Wick, so you tell me who lives, who dies?”

While there is no doubt that fans of the franchise would love to see Reeves return as Wick again, there is a question of whether a fifth movie could even manage to compete with what has been an almost perfect conclusion to the main saga. Considering the huge amount of praise John Wick: Chapter 4 has been getting from critics and audiences, becoming one of those rare movies to have a unanimous consensus on both sides, it would be foolish to think that someone, somewhere isn’t already working out how to make John Wick 5 happen.