With an acting career that spans nearly four decades, Keanu Reeves has made a name for himself, and it looks like he is shining bright in the limelight for the past couple of years. In his long and successful career, Reeves has worked in numerous films that are immensely successful both critically and commercially. The River’s Edge actor has proved that he can work in modern Shakespeare to buddy comedy films that will keep the audience entertained.
However, Keanu Reeves is widely known for his vengeance-seeking John Wick in the franchise of the same name. The John Wick franchise went guns blazing and switched the action genre, and now it is one of the most popular and intense action movies out there. Although John Wick: Chapter 4 was immensely successful, it turns out that the fourth film would have never taken place had the third film would have had a better ending.
Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski Were Disappointed With John Wick 3’s Ending
In the final scene of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick continued fighting the mercenaries as he was declared an ex-communicado. He returns to The Continental situated in New York, where he is shot by Winston, and in the final scene, he is severely injured as he fell from the roof of the Continental. Wick required medical attention for his injuries, and it was shown that Bowery King’s man was taking him to safety, ending the film on a cliffhanger.
When Chad Stahelski was a guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he shared that neither he nor Keanu Reeves was happy with the ending shown in the third film of the franchise. He stated that the actor was not very happy about the ending and they had “let everybody down.”
“We did the third movie and then we were really done. We’re like, ‘We’re done.’ And then again, it was a year later, Keanu and I both felt like we kind of let everybody down with the ending of number 3.”
The director explained that the cliffhanger was a good addition to the film, but it did not go well the way John Wick was portrayed in the film.
“I think [the ending] was well-received but it was kind of like, people really like John and they’re like, ‘What the f*ck, guys? You know, that was an action ending, great. But okay, what the f*ck? Tough talking mythology here and you didn’t really wrap it up. And we started talking more and more, and we just felt like we didn’t leave everything we had on the table.”
The dissatisfied ending left Stahelski and Reeves annoyed and they started looking for creative ways for the fourth film, that would make John Wick’s story come full circle and fans loved the ending of the film as well.
Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves Decided John Wick Must Die in John Wick: Chapter 4
During an exclusive interview with Empire, The Ballerina producer stated that he started reading about samurai etiquette called Hagakure. When he pitched this idea to the actor, both of them agreed that John Wick should kick the bucket in the fourth film and they decided to come up with the best and honourable death for the character.
“I said [to Reeves], ‘I’d be pissed if that’s how they ended the whole series. I’d be pissed at the director.’ And I had just read this treatise on samurai etiquette called Hagakure, the art of the way of dying”
“And we’re like, ‘Yeah, he’s got to die. And we got to come up with the coolest way to make the happen. We’ve got to make it all about, ‘You can only had a good death if you had a good life’. That’s the first line we wrote on a napkin in Japan, three years out. We wrote the movie backwards off that one thing.”
Turns out that their idea of coming up with an honorable death was a massive success as fans loved how the fourth film turned out to be, and their beloved character died as a free man.
John Wick: Chapter 4 can be rented/bought from Prime Video.
Source: Happy Sad Confused Podcast
