Is Winston John Wick’s father?

Warning: the following article contains spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4.

John Wick: Chapter 4 has at long last started to roll out in theaters across the world, and the long-awaited fourth installment in the series left audiences with a doozy of an ending, but in quite a different sense than the cliffhangers we’ve seen in the previous two films. We’ve mentioned it once already, but seriously, if you’re yet to see the movie, come back later – because we go in hard and fast on the spoilers from the next paragraph. 

So, the titular Baba Yaga (Keanu Reeves) appears to have met his demise after an emotionally and physically taxing journey up to the doorstep of Sacré-Cœur, where he was forced to face off against his long-time friend, Caine (Donnie Yen) in an old-school pistol duel. Shortly afterwards, and finally free of the High Table, John slumps over and seemingly succumbs to his wounds. 

The film then cuts back to United States, where the New York Continental’s newly-reinstated manager Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) exchange a few words in front of John Wick’s headstone, which reads “Loving Husband,” as he requested earlier in the film. The pair exchange a few words, before Winston says “Dasvidaniya, moy syn,” which the film translates as  “Farewell, my son” on-screen. We can nitpick that the Russian parting words more literally translate to “Until we meet again,” but John’s apparent death is something we can scrutinize another time. 

Here and now, let’s stick with those bombshell final words of the film – is Winston truly John Wick’s father, or were his parting words simply a show of affection that we’re reading too far into? Let’s investigate.

The big Winston twist in John Wick: Chapter 4 explained

When Winston delivers these final words to John’s headstone, he also momentarily reveals a tattoo on his wrist which suggests that he is tied to the Ruska Roma syndicate which raised and shaped John into the surgically precise killer that he is. This subtle detail perhaps feeds further into the idea that Winston has known John since his formative years, and paternity isn’t something to rule out, even if it is perhaps a little far-fetched.

However, the film’s final nod does feed into years-long fan theories about John and Winston’s relationship, and adds additional context as to why the Continental Manager and Charon were (almost) always backing John throughout his bloodthirsty quest for vengeance. Seriously, this has been speculated by the John Wick fandom for a long, long time – with many a Reddit thread broaching the topic.

It would seem, then, given all of the speculation over the years, that Winston’s “Farewell, my son” is a pretty deliberate way of poking at the fanbase’s hunches, without outright confirming anything. While many may argue that the use of those words definitively proves Wick’s parentage, “my son” is a term of endearment used quite frequently even if there is no blood shared between people who are close. 

What the words have done, at the very least, is get people talking and theorizing all over again. After all, the film’s writers did mention that they knowingly left the ending up to the interpretation of the viewer, so that they can evaluate how they’re feeling about the franchise as a whole, and whether or not there is a need for a John Wick 5.