Earlier this year John Wick: Chapter 4 was released to much fanfare as Keanu Reeves returned in his now iconic role as former assassin John Wick on a mission to defeat the High Table. Now franchise producer Basil Iwanyk has opened up about Reeves’ own role in deciding John’s fate. Spoilers follow…
At the conclusion of John Wick: Chapter 4, John enters into a dual with Caine, his friend and the assassin High Table member Marquis de Gramont extorted to kill John, and is mortally wounded. After delivering a fatal blow to the Marquis, John succumbs to his injuries from the duel and is buried next to his late wife with Winston and the Bowery King mourning over his grave. In an interview with Collider, Iwanyk revealed Reeves wanted to be “definitively” killed off to close out John’s story as well as end the exhaustion he faced filming the series.
“After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally,” Iwanyk said. “By the end, he’s always like, ‘I can’t do this again,’ and we agree with him. The guy is just a shell of himself because he just goes off and goes for it. He was like, ‘I wanna be definitively killed at the end of this movie.’ We were like, ‘You know, we’ll leave a 10% little opening.'”
“We all want another John Wick,” Iwanyk said. “We don’t know what it looks like and when it will happen, but we love each other and we love this world. It’s gonna be all hands to try to figure it out. Have we figured it out? No. And if we can’t figure it out, will there be one? No, of course not. No one is gonna try to just jam it for the sake of jamming it.”
While a little room may be left open for the future with that “10%”, John Wick: Chapter 5 has been said by Lionsgate to be in development but it may or may not be with Reeves’ involvement, especially if he was so adamant John be killed and director Chad Stahelski trying to figure out the “why” of another entry.
There is still plenty more coming in the John Wick franchise however as the prequel series The Continental, which follows a young Winston and his takeover of New York’s Continental hotel, begins airing on Peacock on Friday [read our review here] and Ana de Armas is leading the feature film spin-off Ballerina about an assassin-in-training from the school John visited in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which is due for a June 7th, 2024 release date.
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) uncovers a path to defeating the High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is directed by Chad Stahelski and stars Keanu Reeves as John Wick, Lance Reddick as Charon, Ian McShane as Winston, and Laurence Fishburne as The Bowery King. Newcomers to the franchise include Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Japanese-British pop singer Rina Sawayama, Hiroyuki Sanada (Army of the Dead), Marko Zaror (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), Shamier Anderson (Wynonna Earp), Bill Skarsgård (It: Chapter Two), Scott Adkins (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption).
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
