Photo: NY Post
John Wick is finally back! The fourth installment of this hitman movie series has been announced, and it looks like Keanu Reeves will be reprising his role as the titular killer. A recent Twitter post from their handle showed one scene in which he bows his head while closing his eyes.
Is he resting? Praying? Trimming his beard? I guess we’ll never know until its release on March 23, 2023.
John Wick: Chapter 4 will be directed by Chad Stahelski, who has helmed all of the franchise’s films to date.
The film features prominent personalities such as Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Bill Skarsgard, and action icon Donnie Yen alongside Reeves. Yen portrays the character of John Wick’s old friend, who goes way back and shares the same nemesis with Wick.
“We are very lucky to have Donnie Yen join the franchise,” Stahelski previously said in a statement when the star’s casting was revealed. “I am looking forward to working with him in this exciting new role.”
Reeves Wanted the Role, Iwanyk Adjusted
When the character of Wick was first written, it had a seventy-five-year-old actor in mind. However, when Reeves showed interest in playing this iconic character, they couldn’t argue. Since the series began in 2014, with the first film John Wick, Reeves has played the role.
“The lead was a seventy-five-year-old man, twenty-five years after being retired. It was the fun of watching Clint Eastwood kick ass,” recounts franchise showrunner Basil Iwanyk in the recently published book They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Oral History of John Wick, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action, written by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman.
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“I thought, ‘Okay, there’s probably one or two names you could do this with Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford.’ Other than that, I’m not sure how I put this movie together. But the tone of the script for John Wick was subversive and really fun. It has a very clear emotional throughline and a great premise for an action movie.”
The producers had to rewrite the role following Reeves’ interest in doing this part.
John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad revealed in They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: “The first thing that Keanu said to me was, ‘Okay, Derek, I’m going to play him 35.’ And I’m like, ‘Fine.'”
John Wick Series Previous Films
The last installment released by the franchise, Chapter 3: Parabellum, follows Wick being on the run from a group of assassins after a huge bounty was placed on his head.
In the movie’s last scenes, Wick gets shot by his trusted friend Winston, making him fall from the roof. However, he gets collected by someone and gets delivered to Bowery King. The two then agree to work together against the High Table.
All the previous three installments – John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) – earned critical and commercial success, with a collective estimated earning of $587 million globally.
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