EachJohn 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.

AsThe Worlds ofJohn Wickexplores, 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 worldor rather, worldsit 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 makeJohn Wick a hit.

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

Caitlin G. Watt's work, which focuses on gender and sexuality and narrative theories of character in medieval romances, has appeared inNeophilologus,Erasmus Studies,Medieval Feminist Forum, andPostmedieval.Her current project examines the development of the Arthurian storyworld in medieval manuscripts. Watt is Lecturer in the Department of English at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina.

Stephen Watt's most recent books includeBernard Shaw's Fiction, Material Psychology and Affect: Shaw, Freud, Simmel and"Something Dreadful and Grand": American Literature and the Irish-Jewish Unconscious. In addition, he coeditedIan Fleming and James Bond: The Cultural Politics of 007. Most of his published writing treats one of three topics: Irish Studies; drama, film, and performance studies; or the contemporary university. Watt is Provost Professor Emeritus of English and former Associate Dean of the School of Art, Architecture + Design at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Worlds ofJohn Wick, by Caitlin G. Watt and Stephen Watt
Part I:John Wickand Action Cinema
1. Red Circle of Revenge: Anatomy of the Fight Sequence inJohn Wick, by Lisa Coulthard and Lindsay Steenberg
2. Hidden in Plain Sight: Stunt-Craft Work inJohn Wickand the Networked Worlds of 87Eleven Action Design, by Lauren Steimer
3. Killing in Equanimity: TheorizingJohn Wick's Action Aesthetics, by Wayne Wong
Part II: The Economies and Phenomenology of the Wickverse
4. The Continental Abyss:John Wickvs. the Frankfurt School, by Skip Willman
5. Bitcoin, Shitcoin, Wickcoin: The Hidden Phenomenology ofJohn 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 theJohn WickFilms, by Edward P. Dallis-Comentale
7. 'The One You Sent to Kill the Boogeyman': Folklore and Identity Deconstruction in theJohn WickUniverse, by Caitlin G. Watt
8. Captain Dead Wick: Grief and the Monstrous in theJohn Wick andDeadpool Films, by Mary Nestor
Part IV:John Wick's Matrix: Space and Time
9. Classical Orders, Modernist Revisions, Fantastical Expansions: Reading the Architecture of theJohn WickFranchise, 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 inJohn 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 inJohn Wick 3, by Stephen Watt
Bibliography
Index