We’re going to have to wait another year before we see Keanu Reeves’ master assassin back in action, as Lionsgate has announced that it has pushed back the release of John Wick: Chapter 4 by more than a year.
The next instalment was originally set to open on May 21st of this year, the same date that Warner Bros. has set for another Reeves action sequel in The Matrix 4. It will now open on May 27th, 2022.
Reeves was actually in production on The Matrix sequel when the global health crisis halted filming, and had been expected to move on to John Wick: Chapter 4 once filming had wrapped on his return as Neo. However, news of a delay shouldn’t come as a surprise given that director Chad Stahelski revealed this week that they are yet to complete a script for the film:
“We have, I wouldn’t call it a first draft but I’d call it a ‘scriptment’: A written-out story, part outline, part script, part thingm” Stahelski told Collider. “We know where we want to go, we know the thematics. We call it ‘the toy box.’ It’s like a 100-and-something page document, but some of it’s written. It’s a good place to start… We got, not quite a locked-in first draft, but we’re in a place where we know what we want do and where we want to do it.”
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“Matrix was only four weeks in when this all happened,” Stahelski continued. “So, Keanu’s gotta go finish his commitment up on The Matrix, which is a big deal and which I think will probably take him until the end of the year. Then we have to go into our prep mode and the we’ll start.”
The John Wick franchise proved a surprise hit when the first movie arrived back in 2014, with the three instalments to date grossing almost $600 million at the worldwide box office.
