Keanu Reeves, Director 'Going to Give John Wick a Rest' After New Sequel: We're 'Done for the Moment'
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Lionsgate Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
Fans of John Wick may have bad news coming their way.
Chad Stahelski — former stunt double for Keanu Reeves and current director of the fourth installment in the franchise, John Wick: Chapter 4 — revealed that the series might be coming to an end after the release of the new movie.
"In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We're going to give John Wick a rest," Stahelski, 54, told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview published Tuesday. "I'm sure the studio has a plan. If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we'll take a quiet minute."
The filmmaker added that after the press tour ends in Japan, as he mentioned it often does, he and Reeves, 58, will sit down and discuss the next possible step for the franchise — which might mean ending it for good.
"Keanu and I will take the long trip to Tokyo, we'll sit in the Imperial Hotel Scotch Bar and go, 'What do you think?' " Stahelski said. "We'll have a couple 20-year-old whiskies and write some ideas on napkins. If those ideas stick, maybe we'll make a movie."
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Frazer Harrison/Getty Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski
When reflecting on the franchise's roots, Stahelski admits that banking an entire budget and film on the killing of a puppy — the instigator of vengeful violence for Reeves' John Wick in the series' first movie — was a big risk.
He explained that the producers and directors risked "credits cards, a house mortgage" and more on the film, only to create the ultimate sin: killing an innocent pet.
"Killing the puppy was written out as many times as it was written back in," Stahelski revealed. "Ultimately, it's mythological. We had to go so overboard, so extreme to push it to let you know that it was absolutely symbolic."
He added, "We're not trying to hold the realism. We want the viewers to know we're having a laugh. But you don't even know how much [co-producer David Leitch] and I stressed about that … I thought we would never come back from it."
Luckily for Stahelski and his colleagues, they not only came back from it, but also doubled the movies' gross with each installment.
While the curtain may fall for the last time for John Wick in his own original series, Reeves will make an appearance in the spinoff Ballerina starring Ana de Armas as Rooney, a dancer-turned-assassin.
Though no release date has been announced for the film, de Armas, 34, shared in January that the movie had been filming in Prague for four months.
"We still have one more month to go, and I'm in pain," she told Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. "My body, my back, everything hurts. I'm sore, I'm bruised."
John Wick: Chapter 4 is in theaters March 24.
