Fans of the John Wick franchise know that there are really only two ways a violent confrontation with Baba Yaga can end: Either he shoots you in the head—he shoots so many fucking people in the head!—or, if you’re a featured player, he does that thing where he stabs you, then pulls you real close so he can whisper all serious about whether you want to go after him, or live.
Among the noted recipients of that latter treatment: John Wick: Chapter 2's Cassian, played with scene-stealing cool by actor/rapper Common. Like most people, Cassian ends up taking Wick’s pointy-stabby deal, meaning he’s one of the few professional hit-people who actually survive the second movie’s climax.
Fans hoping to see Cassian—who distinguished himself in Chapter 2 as one of the few people capable of fighting Keanu Reeve’s taciturn murder machine on something like his own level—in the upcoming John Wick 3: Parabellum are out of luck, though. Per a recent interview with ComingSoon, Common revealed that he hadn’t been asked to come back for the third Wick outing:
I’m not in the third part, but I could say that I really loved being a part of John Wick 2 and it was an amazing experience. Working with Keanu and Chad, they’re just phenomenal. Challenged and really passionate about the stuff, and I can say that three is going to be incredible, though, I’ll tell you that much.
That’s a bummer, as Cassian and Common were both highlights of the previous film. Meanwhile, plot details about the upcoming sequel are still extremely sparse, although this sudden gap in its character roster does give us hope that our most secret wish for this particular franchise—an adaptation of our long-simmering spec script, John Wick Vs. Dracula—is still potentially in the works.