Entertainment

John Wick Director’s New Action Movie Unveils Brutal Corporate Battle Royale In First Look

Nairavoice · Nov 5, 2026 · 3 min read

John Wick director Chad Stahelski has a brutal new action movie on the way with Karōshi.

Stahelski directed all four John Wick movies featuring Keanu Reeves as the protagonist, and the filmmaker is now producing Karōshi. The new film is an action-thriller that takes place in a near-future version of Manhattan reshaped by corporate loyalty and cultural traditions. After an employee’s death, a mysterious outsider infiltrates a powerful company and exposes the violent system hidden underneath the professional facade.

Lionsgate has now released the first trailer for Karōshi, which opens with glimpses of Manhattan and Shōgun star Takehiro Hira speaking to a crowd about how a technology company has shaped the modern world for millions. The Japanese word “karōshi” is defined as a noun that means “death from overwork,” which takes on new meaning when an employee chooses to fall off the roof and plummet to his death, where he splatters Isabel May’s character with his blood. Check out the trailer below:

As the footage continues, the company is described as following the path of the samurai, followed by shots of more employees falling to their deaths, while others are choked out, hacked apart with blades, and have their corpses mutilated in what appears to be a battle royale within the company.

In addition to Hira and May, the cast features Teo Yoo, Giancarlo Esposito, Cynthia Erivo, Bill Camp, and Show Kasamatsu, most of whom appear in the trailer. Karōshi is directed and written by Takashi Doscher, whose previous credits include Chicago P.D. and the 2019 film Still starring Leslie Odom Jr., Freida Pinto, and Chandler Riggs. The new movie was produced by Stahelski, Jason Spitz, Alex Young, and Nathan Kahane.

With an 88-minute runtime, the film will be shorter than any of Stahelski’s John Wick movies, which range from 101-169 minutes. At less than an hour and a half long, Karōshi will seemingly waste no time in setting up its premise and dropping viewers straight into the action. An official rating from the MPA has not been given yet, but if the trailer is any indication, it will receive an R rating due to the abundance of bloody and violent sequences.

                <a href="/register/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign in</a> to claim your place on
                the leaderboard!



                <a href="/register/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign in</a> to claim your place on
                the leaderboard!

The movie is scheduled to be released in theaters on February 5, 2027. This comes ahead of numerous big 2027 movie releases, some of which will also be action-packed, including John Rambo, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, Star Wars: Starfighter, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, The Legend of Zelda, Man of Tomorrow, The Mummy: Book of the Dead, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, and Avengers: Secret Wars. Karōshi not only comes first, but offers an alternative that is not part of a franchise.

Prior to playing a key role in Karōshi, May’s credits include Young Sheldon, 1883, 1923, Scream 7, and the upcoming Mr. Irrelevant. Yoo is known for Past Lives and The Recruit, while Erivo played Elphaba Thropp in Wicked and Wicked: For Good, and Esposito played the iconic villain Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and Moff Gideon in all seasons of The Mandalorian.