John Wick fans have expected the popular film series to run for at least five movies, with the fate of the series still up in the air, but still supported by spin-off content. However, its star had other ideas, asking for his character’s demise in Chapter 4.
At the end of John Wick: Chapter 4, audiences watched the titular character seemingly taking his final breath after succumbing to his injuries. It may not have been the original ending that the series creators planned but it was most likely what Keanu Reeves wanted.
According to new information shared by John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk to Collider, Reeves wanted a definitive end to his character in the fourth movie. Iwanyk revealed that the actor was physically and emotionally fatigued from filming all the movies. Reeves reportedly went as far as begging for his character to be definitely killed off in the fourth film.
“After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally,” Iwanyk shared. “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.'”
Iwanyk explained that the producers and filmmakers had a close bond over the years of filming. The members were reportedly reluctant to take a break for fear of missing out on the next big installment. The producer went as far as to compare Stahelski and Reeves to The Beetles, saying that he was just waiting on the duo to come up with inspiration for another chapter in the John Wick story.
Iwanyk states, “We’ve all become such good friends and we all like each other so much and we’re all so tickled by the success of these movies, critically and commercially that we all think to ourselves, ‘Okay, how do we get the band back together, in a way that merits a good story in the next evolution of John.’
“At this point, it’s Keanu and Chad [Stahelski] getting together to figure out what that story is. The way I describe it is that they’re like Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and I’m Ringo. They’ll call me and let me know, ‘All right, we’re showing up. Here’s where you show up, and here’s what our story is.'”
While Keanu Reeves may have wanted to take a break, it is not a definite goodbye to John Wick. The producer still wants to make more movies and is just waiting for the director and star to return. It all depends on whether Reeves will feel like picking the pistols up again after a break.
“We all want another John Wick. We don’t know what it looks like and when it will happen, but we love each other and we love this world,” Iwanyk continued. “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.”
The John Wick universe will be expanding as The Continental, a spin-off prequel TV series, premieres on Peacock on September 22, 2023.
