Since he first appeared as the iconic hitman in 2014, Keanu Reeves has become synonymous with John Wick. Over the last decade, Reeves has starred in four films as the character. On his latest outing as Wick, which arrived earlier this year, Reeves reportedly asked to be “definitively killed off” by the end of the film.
Recalling the experience on set with Collider, producer Basil Iwanyk recalled that the leading man asked for John Wick to be killed off. He explained: “After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu. physically and emotionally.”
By the end of shooting, Iwanyk suggested: “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 off at the end of this movie‘.”
According to Iwanyk, Reeves settled for 90% certainty: “We were like, ‘You know, we’ll leave a 10% little opening’.”
Iwanyk also explained the friendships behind the success of the series, noting: “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 a way that merits a good story in the next evolution of John’.”
He continued: “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’.”
On whether there will be another outing for Wick, against Reeves’ request, Iwanyk concluded: “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. 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.”
Revisit the trailer for John Wick: Chapter 4 below.
