In a 2022 red carpet interview with Variety, Stahelski talked about how he’s always envisioned Wick as the legendary Greek myth Odysseus:
“I love mythology […] I love a good myth. I don’t really believe — at least for the ‘John Wick’ movies — in a three-act structure. I believe in storytelling and leaving it. You know, we’ve always seen John Wick as Odysseus. So we take the time we need to tell the story. As long as we don’t fall asleep watching it, we keep it going. But I guess there is a bathroom limit.”
With the sequels keeping in line with chapter titles, it plays like one big story. Each installment bleeds into the other as if you just finished reading another one of Wick’s adventures, and are ready to see where he’s taken next. This hidden underground of hired guns in New York City is a quaint past now, for by the time Wick had to travel to the middle of the Sahara Desert to meet the enigmatic head of the High Table, it became clear that this series was telling a uniquely mythical tale.
The stakes have only been raised with “Chapter 4,” as Wick is given a choice to engage with the mysterious Marquis (Bill Skarsgård) in a one-on-one duel that will decide his fate. At one point, Wick was allowed to rest after coming home from his impossible task, but much like his literary counterpart, the journey back to “Ithaca” will require a string of challenges along the way. I think we’ve just about reached his journey to the underworld, given the sheer scope of the High Table.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” is set to hit theaters on March 24, 2023.