Keanu Reeves Wanted John Wick To Really Die But One Producer Made Sure To Leave a 10% Chance That He Lives
John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk recently opened up about the action film franchise and how Keanu Reeves really did want his badass character to die at the end of John Wick Chapter 4. He explains that Reeves was just physically and emotionally exhausted from making these movies. Iwanyk told Collider:
"After the second, third, and fourth movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally. 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.'"
Now, while Keanu is ready to move on, the producers don’t want to say goodbye. Iwanyk went on to tease, "We were like, 'You know, we’ll leave a 10% little opening.” So there is a chance that we could see Reeves back in the role of John Wick in a fifth chapter.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Joe Drake previously said that the studio is not done with John Wick. He explained: "We're not ready to say goodbye to Keanu with this franchise. It's what alternative there will be." He went on to add there are “a lot of different things that we can do. I’ve seen this movie five times in the last week. I can see the way that the audience moves him.”
When previously talking about John Wick: Chapter 5, producer Erica Lee said: "I think that on all of the movies at this point in the process, we were like, 'We're never doing it again!' They're super hard and exhausting to shoot. 'John Wick 4' was 97 days of night shoots, and Keanu [Reeves] gets the s*** kicked out of him. Everyone by this point is like, 'We had seven premieres, oh my God, we're done!'"
But, after that exhaustion wears off, Lee explains that everyone wants to get back together to do it again: "For the last two movies — there's been a Japan release for both of them that was a couple months later — everyone has had some time to rest and think about what we would do, what we could do. I think we all remember how much we love each other and love these movies. So yeah, I'm hopeful. Is the character of John Wick dead? Are there other versions? Are there different stories to tell? I think so."
As for what Reeves thinks about coming back for another film, he said: “I guess I'm going to have to lean on never say never [...] For me, it feels really right that John Wick finds peace."
John Wick Chapter 5 is also confirmed to be in development.