Keanu Reeves asked to be “definitively killed” in ‘John Wick 4’ but producers didn’t listen

Warning: Spoilers ahead

Keanu Reeves reportedly asked for the titular character of the John Wick franchise to be “definitively” killed off at the end of Chapter 4, released earlier this year.

• READ MORE: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ review: an all-action blockbuster that truly gives its all

Speaking to Collider for a new interview, John Wick: Chapter 4 producer Basil Iwanyk revealed that Reeves had requested for John Wick to be undeniably dead by the fourth film’s conclusion as he was experiencing fatigue from filming.

“After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally,” said Iwanyk. “By the end, he’s always like, ‘I can’t do this again,’ and we agree with him”.

Iwanyk went on to explain: “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 per cent little opening.'”

While John Wick is left presumably dead after a duel at the end of the fourth film, the producers and director Chad Stahleski have ended the film on an ambiguous note, leaving the door open for a possible return later on.

In March, Stahelski said that both he and Keanu Reeves are “done for the moment” with the films. “In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We’re going to give John Wick a rest. I’m sure the studio has a plan. If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we’ll take a quiet minute.”

John Wick: Chapter 4 scored a four-star review upon its release earlier this year. Jesse Hassenger wrote from NME: “John Wick: Chapter 4 is a lot. It runs nearly three hours, introduces multiple new characters, further indulges the series’ trademark elaborate mythology, and at one point adds a brief desert-set horseback chase in an apparent homage to Lawrence of Arabia. Yet this latest sequel to the relatively straightforward 2014 revenge action movie also seems hell-bent on proving a theory about self-indulgent blockbuster bloat: it’s not really a problem if the audience is having a good time.”

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