John Wick’s journey might have come to an end for now, but that’s not stopping Lionsgate from expanding its assassin franchise universe, as the upcoming spin-off, Caine, featuring Donnie Yen as the fan-favourite blind assassin, has now begun production.
Yen, who will both star and direct the spin-off, posted an image on his Instagram page featuring the movie’s slate to celebrate the first day of filming, alongside the caption “Here we go…” Caine was first announced back in May 2024, with Yen further taking on the role of director one year later.
Fans would no doubt be familiar with Yen’s blind assassin Caine, who made his debut in 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4, with the character quickly becoming a favourite thanks to his unique character and moveset. Caine was a former High Table assassin who was forced out of retirement and tasked to kill Wick to secure his daughter’s safety, so it remains to be seen if the upcoming film will focus on his origins or continue his tale where we last left off, which saw Rina Sawayama’s Akira attempting to assassinate him, but since Sawayama is also set to return for the spin-off, the latter seems more likely,
Caine comes hot on the heels of the franchise’s other spin-off, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, which centred on Ana de Armas’ Eve Macarro in a standalone title about a Ruska Roma assassin seeking vengeance for her father, which does signal the franchise’s change in direction to focus on individual narratives set in the wider John Wick universe now that the main films have seemingly concluded.
In addition to Caine, an animated John Wick prequel film is also in development, and will focus on the “Impossible Task” Wick had to perform in order to secure his freedom from the High Table. The franchise will also see a separate sequel series, John Wick: Under the High Table, which will continue straight after the events of the fourth film and focus on new characters forging their paths in the seedy underworld.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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