John Wick lives!
Keanu Reeves is officially set to return to the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 5, Lionsgate confirmed at CinemaCon on Tuesday. The star and producer will re-team with franchise director Chad Stahelski, as well as producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee.
“Keanu, Chad, Basil, and Erica would not return unless they had something truly phenomenal and fresh to say with these characters and this world,” Adam Fogelson, chair of the studio’s Motion Picture Group, said in a statement. “We can’t wait for audiences to see where the journey takes us next.”
The most recent film from the blockbuster franchise, 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4, ended on a relatively ambiguous note for Reeves’ hitman. The character appeared to have died following a duel with Bill Skarsgård’s Marquis de Gramont, though there’s a shot of Wick’s dog looking back at his grave.
Stahelski has already indicated that the scene in question was “very deliberate” and that an alternate version of the ending showed Wick very much alive. “We had a different ending,” Stahelski told Empire in 2023. “We shot an ending where you actually saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was very clear that he was still alive. The audiences we tested with absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending.”
And some more news out of of CinemaCon: the Caine spin-off movie starring and directed by martial arts icon Donnie Yen is set to begin production in Hong Kong later this year. As for that animated prequel film centered on Wick before the events of the first film as he completes the Impossible Task, Reeves is set to produce that anime alongside Stahelski, Iwanyk, and Lee. Shannon Tindle will direct, while Vanessa Taylor will write.
