John Wick (Keanu Reeves) was born Jardani Jovonovich in Belarus.[5][6] He was an orphan who was taken in by the Ruska Romacrime syndicate, where he was raised as an assassin, eventually rising to become the top enforcer of the Russian Mafia and known as “Baba Yaga” (“the one you sent to kill [the] Boogeyman“) under crime boss Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), who deemed him so ruthless that many came to respect and fear him. At the beginning of the first film, Wick has been retired from being a hitman for five years after undertaking an “impossible task” for Tarasov, wiping out all other organized crime syndicates in New York City in order to be allowed to leave to marry Helen (Bridget Moynahan) before her eventual death from cancer, leaving him known as a legend in the assassin underworld worldwide.
John Wick is an American neo-noir action thrillermedia franchise created by Derek Kolstad and centered on John Wick, a former hitman who is drawn back into the criminal underworld he had previously abandoned.
The franchise began with the release of John Wick in 2014, followed by three sequels: Chapter 2 in 2017, Chapter 3 – Parabellum in 2019, and Chapter in 2023. The franchise has various spin-offs in development, beginning with the limited series The Continental: From the World of John Wick debuting in 2023, and the film Ballerina releasing in 2024.
The films have received critical acclaim and earned a collective gross of more than $1 billion worldwide
