I Am Convinced ...

... that the John Wick movies take place in the Matrix universe (no, I'm not the first one to think that). I'm just not sure where they fit in the Matrix timeline. Some possibilities:

1. John Wick's story is a dream Thomas Anderson has before the events of The Matrix. It is through these dreams that Morpheus (the god of dreams/sleep) begins trying to contact him, in the persona of the Bowery King.
2. The John Wick universe is a highly immersive training program, a mini-Matrix in which the memory of the trainee of an outside existence is blocked, used by Zion to toughen up its operatives.  John Wick's story takes place on Neo's first day of training aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, probably somewhere between "I'm gonna learn jiu jitsu?" and "I know kung fu."
3. At times, the Matrix films heavily imply that The One is actually an intelligent program himself, like the Oracle, the Keymaster, the Merovingian (who may even be a previous iteration of Neo), et al. (but apparently running in a "real" human body a la Agent Smith in the second and third films). The John Wick universe is an agent training program in which The One learns to believe itself human and accept a human personal history, as well to excel at human combat without as much permitted deviation from the rules of the Matrix.
4. The John Wick universe is a milieu into which the Source inserts Neo after his final battle with Smith. In this universe, Neo is allowed to work out his rage over the death of Trinity, and possibly other emotional issues, without having to actually remember them, while awaiting the restoration of his real physical body to health.

There might be others. But I'm convinced there's a relationship for several reasons, among them:

1. While I haven't cataloged the changes, it seems to me that (at least in the third John Wick film) there's a similar blue tint/green tint shift to that which takes place in the Matrix films between "real world" and "in-Matrix."
2. The role of The Bowery King vis a vis John Wick increasingly implies a relationship not dissimilar to that of Morpheus vis a vis Neo.
3. Winston's ability to stop motion/time in the John Wick universe.
4. The final scene of John Wick 2 in which "normal" people seem to transform into near-future enemies as Wick walks away from the meeting with Winston in which he learns he will become excommunicado in an hour.
5. The first scene of John Wick 3 in which a homeless man (who appears later, but I won't spoil that) instantaneously goes from schizophrenic raving mode to knowledgeable message delivery mode.
6. I haven't carefully re-watched all three movies for line overlap between the franchises, but obviously "guns ... lots of guns" isn't accidental. Yeah, it could have been thrown in just for fun, but it could also be a nod to the relationship.

Yes, I watched John Wick 3 last night and went to sleep thinking about this shit. As if you hadn't figured that out by the end of the first sentence or two.