John Wick: Chapter 4 needs to end the franchise's relatively compressed time frame. Keanu Reeves's portrayal of John Wick, a.k.a. the Baba Yaga, has taken the former assassin out of retirement into his ongoing conflict with numerous enemies in the assassin underworld. Following the cliffhanger ending of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, John's story will take a major twist going into John Wick 4.
Going into John Wick 4, John and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) have teamed up with their shared vendettas against the High Table, while may set up a sizable time gap from the ending of John Wick 3, due to the intensive nature of their undertaking. The trailer for John Wick 4 indicates such a time jump with John recovering from his fall from the top of New York City's Continental, as well as John Wick's martial arts training to fight the High Table's assassins, making the move from the third to fourth film make more canonical sense. Having a longer-than-usual gap from John Wick 3 to John Wick 4 could also be a great benefit by allowing the series to integrate a new story structure - moving away from the current shorter timeline in order to set up for grander moments.
The John Wick Franchise Has Had A Short Timeline (But That Cannot Last Forever)
John Wick got the series rolling with John avenging the killing of his dog, with John Wick: Chapter 2 picking up shortly after its ending. John Wick 2 led into the beginning of John Wick 3 with John on the running from assassins at every turn. The first three John Wick films feeding directing into one another suggests that they take place over roughly a two to three-week period, and while that has worked well in keeping audiences on their toes, it is also not an indefinitely sustainable storytelling format.
Even with John Wick's legendary skills in assassination, martial arts, and different kinds of weapons, the character being constantly on the run or faced with new enemies would be bound to overtake him with fatigue sooner or later. Additionally, his fall in John Wick 3 is very unlikely to be the kind of event John could simply jump right back into action from without his aforementioned recovery period. With the hints in John Wick 4's trailer, the apparently substantial time gap from John Wick 3 can be in service to John Wick 4 by providing it with a strong foundation.
A Longer Time Gap To John Wick: Chapter 4 Could Give It More Build-Up
While John's anger towards the High Table is clear at the end of John Wick 3, the task of taking down such a large governing body is not to be taken lightly. Both John and the Bowery King are surely aware that taking their time to plot a battle strategy is of paramount importance in facing the Elder and the High Table. John Wick 4 can use that interim period in his and the Bowery King's High Table war to set it up as the biggest battle of the series.
John needs a period of at least a few weeks to be fully healed and to have his and the Bowery King's battle strategy prepared, and the latter point is very much applicable to John Wick 4 itself. Over its first three movies, the John Wick series has continually risen to new heights as an action movie franchise. With the biggest showdown John has ever faced, John Wick: Chapter 4 beginning after a fairly long time jump is one of the best things it can do for John Wick's High Table battle.
