John Wick Theory: Every Villain Who Can Return In Chapters 4 & 5

John Wick has battled many opponents in his eponymous action movie franchise, and there are a few who could return in John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5. The John Wick series has come a long way from its small-scale beginnings in the 2014 original to now popularizing assassin movies and being a true powerhouse among action films. The franchise also makes heavy use of both martial arts and gun fu, and has had John battle some enemies who could really give him a run for his money.

Martial artists like Daniel Bernhardt, Mark Dacascos, Tiger Chen, and Roger Yuan are just a handful of the adversaries John has dealt with in the first three films in the series. John Wick 4 will also bring aboard even more with allies and enemies alike for John, with Donnie Yen to portray a friend of John’s, while Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins, and Marko Zaror will also appear in undisclosed roles. Had the original plan to film John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 back-to-back panned out, there might be a better sense of his future friends and foes, but while that didn’t end up happening, that also doesn’t mean that John’s future opponents will be entirely new faces.

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Not all of John’s enemies have died in the first three John Wick films, and some have been so formidable that a return would even seem like a good idea if it could be worked into the story in an organic way. Despite John Wick 4 having gotten underway, some of them could even theoretically appear for just a surprise cameo, before really jumping back into action in John Wick 5. Here are John Wick’s still living, or possibly still living, past villains who could return in John Wick 4 or John Wick 5.

Cassian

John first crossed paths with Cassian (Common) in John Wick: Chapter 2 when he was sent on a mission to assassinate Gianna (Claudia Gerini), the sister of Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio). John only took the job very reluctantly, due to Santino cashing his marker with John, which must be honored in the assassin world. Though Gianna chose to end her own life rather than die by her brother’s orders, her head bodyguard Cassian still held John responsible, leading him to pursue John through the streets of Rome and all the way back to New York City, with the two going to war with guns, blades, and empty-handed martial arts.

John ultimately came out on top in their second encounter on a subway train, leaving Cassian alive with a blade in his aorta as a “professional courtesy“, along with the warning that he’ll bleed to death if he pulls it out. With John on the run by the end and Cassian still alive when audiences last saw him, he could have managed to have the blade surgically removed in a safe way that allowed him to live. As one of John’s most formidable enemies, he could make a cameo in John Wick 4 or a full return in John Wick 5 to finally settle the score with his old enemy.

Ares

Like Cassian, the mute assassin Ares was introduced in John Wick 2, placed by Santino to keep tabs on John after he was tasked with assassinating Gianna. After Gianna’s (in some territories trimmed down) death, John learns that Santino never planned on leaving him alive either when Ares and Santino’s team pursue John to take him down alongside Cassian. Ares was last seen in the hall of mirrors showdown in John Wick 2, and the movie keeps her fate a little ambiguous.

John and Ares had a battle of blades in the hall of mirrors, which ended with John stabbing Ares in the chest. However, like Cassian, Ares didn’t explicitly die on-screen. This means that Ruby Rose could also theoretically return as Ares in either John Wick 4 or John Wick 5, allowing Ares to finally make good on her final signed words to John – that she’d “Be seeing you.

Shinobi Assassin #1 & #2

The easiest John Wick opponents to bring back in future installments would be the two Shinobi associates of Zero (Mark Dacascos), the villain of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the two respectively played by Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian. With the High Table excommunicating John from the Continental, Zero is recruited by the Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) to take him down, and he brings along several of his Shinobi students in order to get the job done. Rahman and Ruhian’s two Shinobi warriors are among them, and have a two-on-one battle with John in the movie’s third act.

After the three crash through a glass floor, the two Shinobi effectively concede defeat to John. However, both are still very much alive by the end of John Wick 3, so they could very easily come back as enemies of John’s. Alternatively, the two Shinobi, like Zero, had great respect for John that they made sure to share with him even in combat, so the franchise could throw a real twist into the mix by having Rahman and Ruhian’s two Shinobi now return as allies of John’s in his vendetta against the High Table. In either case, with The Raid movies from Indonesia being where Rahman and Ruhian were first launched to fame in the martial arts movie world, it would make bringing them back after they’re clearly still alive seem like a wise move for the John Wick franchise.

As John’s story has progressed, the John Wick franchise has expanded the scope of its world to introduce new characters and plot points in each film, so John’s future is sure to have many new players jump in to both assist and oppose him. However, that doesn’t mean the franchise necessarily has to leave every enemy John has ever fought behind, and depending on the nature of the stories of John Wick 4 and John Wick 5, some are in a position to come back, with plenty of motivation for a rematch with Baba Yaga, or even reason to switch sides as John Wick’s story approaches its ending.

Key Release Dates
  • John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)Release date: Mar 24, 2023
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