Lionsgate Is "Not Ready to Say Goodbye" to Keanu Reeves and John Wick
John Wick: Chapter 4 enjoyed a strong opening weekend as the epic action film debuted with a $73.5 million box office opening domestically and $137.5 million worldwide. The movie is also being met with great reviews and reactions from critics and fans. This is the biggest and best film in the franchise yet, and Lionsgate is not ready to say goodbye to Keanu Reeves as John Wick.
This article will get into some spoiler territory, so if you haven’t watched the movie yet, get out of here! Unless you don’t care.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Joe Drake recently spoke to Deadline, saying 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.”
Now, if you saw the film, you know what John Wick’s fate was. He seemingly died at the end after an insane journey of fighting and survival, and he was buried next to his wife. The director of the film, Chad Stahelski, has confirmed that Wick is indeed dead. But, he then later said that John’s fate is up to "[the viewer's] interpretation." He explained in an interview with Rolling Stone:
"These movies are supposed to be mythological fables, and there are consequences. When you do bad things, bad things happen. If there is another way for John to get out of this, or another way to have a satisfying conclusion to this particular journey, I'm happy to hear it. But you can't do a whole series about consequence and fate without showing consequence and fate. You have to bring it full-circle."
I assume the fate of John Wick is also open to interpretation for the studio, which means if they want another John Wick movie with Reeves back as John Wick, they will do whatever they need to to make it happen. That means offering the Reeves and the creative dump trucks full of money.
My initial reaction to the ending of John Wick is that he’s not really dead. I could see his death being faked in an attempt to stay free from the High Table. That would be the most logical way of bringing Wick back. The other option would be a series of supernatural action films where Wick has to fight his way through the nine circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno, which would also be fun!
What are your thoughts on the future of Keanu Reeves and John Wick?