Lionsgate has greenlit its animated John Wick prequel, with Keanu Reeves signed to voice the assassin he has played since 2014, the studio said on Thursday 5 November 2026, the day it reported fiscal second-quarter results. Shannon Tindle, the director of Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising (2024), will direct from a script by Ryan and Kaz Firpo. No release date has been announced.
Key facts
- Greenlight: Lionsgate confirmed the animated feature on 5 November 2026; chief executive Jon Feltheimer said on the results call that it is in pre-production
- Cast: Reeves has closed a deal to reprise John Wick; no other voice cast has been named
- Creative team: Tindle directs; Ryan and Kaz Firpo wrote the script; Nathan Kahane is executive producer
- Producers: Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road, Chad Stahelski of 87Eleven Entertainment and Reeves, with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey newly attached
- Not yet announced: release date, budget, animation studio and distribution plan
What Lionsgate has announced
The film goes back before the first live-action John Wick (2014). It follows Wick as he completes the Impossible Task, the job that frees him from his obligation to the High Table, the underworld council that runs the franchise’s assassins, and earns him the right to be with Helen, the woman he loves. Variety reports that the franchise has grossed more than $1bn at the global box office across five films, counting the Ana de Armas spinoff Ballerina.
Lionsgate first announced the project at CinemaCon in April 2025, when Adam Fogelson, chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said: “There is no ‘John Wick’ story fans are clamoring for more than the ‘Impossible Task.’” Animation World Network notes that Vanessa Taylor, who co-wrote The Shape of Water, was attached to write at that stage; the Firpos have since taken over the script. The change of writers and Reeves’s signature are the main steps that separate Thursday’s greenlight from the 2025 announcement.
The team
Tindle’s credits sit in animated action and fantasy. TheWrap says he directed and co-wrote Ultraman: Rising (2024) and created and co-wrote the Emmy-winning Netflix series Lost Ollie; AWN and Deadline both list Kubo and the Two Strings among his credits.
The producing group is the live-action franchise’s own: Iwanyk and Lee at Thunder Road, and Stahelski at 87Eleven. Reeves produces as well as performs. Point Grey, the company of Rogen and Goldberg, joins them on the animated film, per AWN. Lionsgate has not said what Point Grey’s role covers.
Where it sits in the franchise
The animated film is one of several extensions in development. Variety reports that a fifth live-action John Wick is in the works, along with a standalone adventure built around Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine. The animated prequel adds a different format to that list.
None of the reports gives a budget or a distribution plan, and the sources reviewed do not say whether the film is planned for cinemas or for streaming.
For related coverage, see FilmBunch’s reports on Lionsgate’s fiscal second-quarter results and on the live-action Naruto Lionsgate is making with Sony. More under Deals.
What happens next
The next details to watch are a release date or window, the animation studio, further voice casting, and the studio’s development timetable for the live-action fifth film. Feltheimer placed the animated feature in pre-production on Thursday.
Our reading
Lionsgate’s results on the same day showed a studio leaning on library and franchise value, and the greenlight fits that approach: a known character, a returning star, and a producing team that has run the series since the first film in 2014. The open questions are commercial ones, since a film of this kind lives or dies on its release plan and its budget, and neither has been disclosed.
Sources
- Lionsgate announcement as reported by Variety (5 November 2026; Reeves deal, franchise gross, live-action pipeline)
- Deadline (5 November 2026; producers, executive producer, Feltheimer on pre-production)
- Animation World Network (5 November 2026; Tindle credits, Point Grey, April 2025 announcement and earlier writer)
- TheWrap (5 November 2026; announced during the earnings call)
- Vital Thrills (5 November 2026; reproduces the announcement text; no release date)