John Wick 4 Originally Intended to Keep Keanu Reeves’ Titular Assassin Alive for Future Sequels: “I’ll let you know he’s alive”
Keanu Reeves is an exceptionally talented actor in the entertainment industry who has continued to deliver great performances, especially in the action-thriller genre. His recent work in John Wick is garnering much attention, especially because the franchise has delivered a great adrenaline rush to the fans and this time, it has ended on quite a cliffhanger.
The actor plays the titular character of John Wick in the famous film series however, fans saw the hitman’s grave at the end of the scene. While many are anticipating the possibilities for the character, it is recently revealed that he was intended to be initially alive for the future sequels that may happen in the future.
Keanu Reeves’s Character Was Initially Meant to Be Alive in John Wick 4
The 58-year-old actor, Keanu Reeves is a talented individual who kept on contributing his best for the famous hitman role of John Wick in the John Wick series distributed by Lionsgate. While his acting was always on par in the series, director, Chad Stahelski in a recent interview with Collider opened up about pitching his plan for the character and deciding the future of this popular arc.
As he knew that his idea was not going to be accepted easily given the reason that he was planning to kill off the titular character, he offered to shoot two different endings for the movie.
For John Wick: Chapter 4, he opened up about why the hitman’s story had to end and filmed the two alternatives for the film and tested them both to audiences to see which one got the better feedback.
While he shared that he had a great relationship with Lionsgate, not everyone was agreeing with him over the endings. He told the outlet,
“But you know, ‘Let me try to execute it the way we are. Let me build the story around it and I’ll do you a solid. I’ll tell you what, I’ll shoot the ending two ways, you know, with one extra little thing, two extra little shots. I’ll let you know he’s alive, and I’m gonna leave it up to the audience to decide.”
He revealed that the test audience loved the ending which was released in the fourth installment that gave a response in itself about why the character was killed off in the movie. Without many struggles, the company went ahead with the final ending which was eventually released in theatres.
Will John Wick 5 Happen in The Future?
Given the success of the fourth installment in the John Wick series, many fans are already anticipating the fifth sequel however is this going to happen? Well, Lionsgate Films are not much bounded about ending the arc as Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Joe Drake opened up about the possibility of the arc’s development in the future.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he shared,
“There’s a will and there’s an openness. And you could certainly interpret that ending in different ways. We’re all going to take a tiny rest here and then scratch at ideas about whether there’s a credible way to get into five. But there’s no guarantee.”
The highly anticipated film debuted on March 24 grossing $146 million at the worldwide box office till now. In case one might have missed the first show, they can still watch Reeves in some cool action sequences as the film is now running in theatres.
Source: Collider
