— Stephen Watt is located in Bloomington, IN —Caitlin Watt is located in Clemson, SC — The editors and contributors to this volume are from a wide range of disciplines to address all aspects of John Wick worldbuilding and are best for this work because they are responsible for the research at "The World(s) of John Wick" conference in November 2019. — Whether you consider the John Wick film franchise to be full of instant cult classics or surprise hits, the movies are no doubt a nostalgic throwback to revenge-thrillers popularized in the 1970s while featuring the action impulses of Kung Fu flicks. The worldbuilding blows people away and has become an iconic site of fan culture. John Wick 4 is planned for May 2022. — The Year's Work series is dedicated to the analysis of recent fan cultural phenomena. This book explores the idiosyncrasies of an action film franchise that has cultivated a passionate fanbase with an elaborate subculture. The series description states that suitable topics will most likely require a multidisciplinary and often coauthored approach. — Target audience includes film buffs and fans of the John Wick film franchise.

Each John Wick film has earned more money and recognition than its predecessor, defying the conventional wisdom about the box office's action movie landscape, normally dominated by superhero movies and science fiction epics.

As The Worlds of John Wick explores, the worldbuilding of John Wick offers thrills that you simply can't find anywhere else. The franchise's plot combines familiar elements of the revenge thriller and crime film with seamlessly coordinated action. One of its most distinctive appeals, however, is the detailed and multifaceted fictional world—or rather, worlds—it constructs. The contributors to this volume consider everything from fight sequences, action aesthetics, and stunts to grief, cinematic space and time, and gender performance to map these worlds and explore how their range and depth make John Wick a hit.

A deep dive into this popular neo-noir franchise, The Worlds of John Wick celebrates and complicates the cult phenomenon that is John Wick.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Worlds of John Wick, by Caitlin G. Watt and Stephen Watt
Part I: John Wick and Action Cinema
1. Red Circle of Revenge: Anatomy of the Fight Sequence in John Wick, by Lisa Coulthard and Lindsay Steenberg
2. Hidden in Plain Sight: Stunt-Craft Work in John Wick and the Networked Worlds of 87Eleven Action Design, by Lauren Steimer
3. Killing in Equanimity: Theorizing John Wick's Action Aesthetics, by Wayne Wong
Part II: The Economies and Phenomenology of the Wickverse
4. The Continental Abyss: John Wick vs. the Frankfurt School, by Skip Willman
5. Bitcoin, Shitcoin, Wickcoin: The Hidden Phenomenology of John Wick, by Aaron Jaffe
Part III: John Wick: Other Cultural Forms and Genres
6. Fortune Favors the Bold: The State of Games and Play in the John Wick Films, by Edward P. Dallis-Comentale
7. 'The One You Sent to Kill the Boogeyman': Folklore and Identity Deconstruction in the John Wick Universe, by Caitlin G. Watt
8. Captain Dead Wick: Grief and the Monstrous in the John Wick and Deadpool Films, by Mary Nestor
Part IV: John Wick's Matrix: Space and Time
9. Classical Orders, Modernist Revisions, Fantastical Expansions: Reading the Architecture of the John Wick Franchise, by Andrew Battaglia and Marleen Newman
10. Out of Time and Going Sideways: John Wick, Time Traveler, by Charles M. Tung
11. John Wick's Blank Cosmopolitanism and the Global Spatiality of the Wickverse, by Mi Jeong Lee
Part V: Gender and the Body in John Wick
12. John Wick's Multiply Signifying Dogs, by Karalyn Kendall-Morwick
13. Masculinity, Isolation, and Revenge: John Wick's Liminal Body, by Owen R. Horton
14. Professionalism and Gender Performance in the John Wickverse, by Vivian Nun Halloran
15. Style and the Sacrificial Body in John Wick 3, by Stephen Watt
Bibliography
Index