Keanu Reeves wanted John Wick to be 'definitively killed' in fourth movie
Keanu Reeves wanted his John Wick character to be killed off at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4.
In an interview with Collider published on Monday, producer Basil Iwanyk revealed that the 59-year-old star asked for the character to be killed off at the end of the 2023 movie.
"After the second, third, and fourth movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally," Iwanyk shared with the outlet. "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.'"
However, the producers pushed back against his wish and they eventually reached a compromise.
"We were like, 'You know, we'll leave a 10% little opening,'" he added.
It is heavily implied that John Wick dies at the end of Chapter 4, after being shot during a duel with Donnie Yen's Caine and Bill Skarsgård's Marquis on the steps of the Sacre Coeur in Paris.
Director Chad Stahelski previously revealed to Empire magazine earlier this year that they shot a more concrete ending that confirmed John was still alive.
"We had a different ending," Stahelski said. "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."
Iwanyk told Collider that he, Reeves and Stahelski are "getting together to figure out what that story is" for another potential chapter in the film franchise.