The road to shooting John Wick: Chapter 4 stretched longer than expected, but principal photography finally kicked off in May and wrapped several days ago. Now the wait begins for the first official John Wick 4 images and footage to be released to the public, but now it appears that we finally know its official title. Just like how John Wick 3 was fully known as John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, John Wick 4 will rock its own subtitle, with the Keanu Reeves-led movie apparently being called John Wick Chapter 4: Hagakure.
This information comes from photographs of wrap gifts given to the John Wick 4 crew following the completion of filming (via One Take News). See for yourself:
🚨 According to wrap gifts, #JohnWick4’s title will be ‘John Wick 4: Hagakure’ pic.twitter.com/aqeOfFEnl9November 8, 2021
While John Wick 3’s “parabellum” subtitle translates from Latin as “prepare for war,” Hagakure, a.k.a. The Book of the Samurai, refers to a collection of text put together by Yamamoto Tsunetomo that serves as a spiritual and practical guide for Japanese warriors. Remember that Chapter 3 ended with Keanu Reeves’ character being delivered to Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who asked John if he was “pissed” at the High Table for what the ruling criminal council had done to him, to which John replied with a simple “Yeah.” The stage is now set for these two to team up and bring the High Table down, so John would certainly be in a warrior’s frame of mind… well, more so than usual, that is.
Lionsgate hasn’t confirmed yet that the upcoming movie is indeed called John Wick Chapter 4: Hagakure, but if this is legitimate, then it’s doubtful it’ll be much longer until the title is made official. It’s also worth noting that in addition to New York City, Berlin and Paris, John Wick 4 shot in Japan, so the subtitle referring to a piece of Japanese literature is extra fitting. That said, it’s unclear how much of the movie will be set in Japan.
In fact, no official plot details for John Wick 4 have been revealed yet, although most if not all of the main cast has been announced. As far as familiar faces go, along with Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne reprising their respective roles, we’ll also reunite with Ian McShane’s Winston and Lance Reddick’s Charon. The newcomers include Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen (whose character has previously been described as an old friend of John’s), Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scorr Adkins and Clancy Brown. Chad Stahelski sat back in the director’s chair, and Shay Hatten and Michael Finch worked on the script.
John Wick: Chapter 4 opens in theaters on May 22, 2022, and along with John Wick: Chapter 5 having also been greenlit, the franchise will expand with Starz’s Continental event series and the Ballerina spinoff. Learn what other movies are coming out next year with our 2022 release schedule.