In a way, John Wick finding his death is a nice thought for the assassin. In death, John Wick would finally be free of the many problems that plagued him in life. And, according to a new interview with John Wick‘s producers, Keanu Reeves agrees with that sentiment. But, of course, it’s hard for a character to really die these days—especially one as popular as John Wick. While John Wick 4 did heavily imply John Wick could be dead, it also left the door open for him to remain alive. And conversations about John Wick 5 are actively happening. Still, it’s interesting to hear that, at least initially, Reeves hoped that death would find his long-time character.
In an interview with Collider, John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk revealed more about the conversation with Reeves about a death for John Wick. He shares “After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 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.’ We were like, ‘You know, we’ll leave a 10% little opening.'”
We all know a 90% definitive death isn’t enough to truly end John Wick, neither the character nor the franchise. But just because the character could be alive doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll return. Iwanyk further notes of a John Wick resurrection, “It’s gonna be all hands to try to figure it out. Have we figured it out? No. And if we can’t figure it out, will there be one? No, of course not. No one is gonna try to just jam it for the sake of jamming it.”
We guess we’ll just have to wait and see if Keanu Reeves has changed his mind on how definitively killed he wants John Wick. For now, John Wick 4 is streaming on Starz and available for purchase digitally. The John Wick spinoff series The Continental will premiere on Peacock beginning September 22.