Keanu Reeves recently told CBS News that he’s not sure his body will be able to handle another “John Wick” movie. The action icon has starred in four “John Wick” films, which have grossed more than $1 billion combined, and will reprise his eponymous assassin in the “Ballerina” spinoff next year. But as far as “John Wick 5” is concerned, that may depend on the health of Reeves’ knees.
“You can never say never,” Reeves said. “My knees are now saying ‘I can’t do another John Wick song.’ So my heart is doing it but I don’t know if my knees can do it.”
“John Wick: Chapter 4” ended with John’s presumed death after competing in a duel to free himself from the high table. John was shot in the third round of the duel and apparently died on the steps of Sacred Heart Cathedral while seeing a vision of his late wife Helen. The film then cuts to the final scene of Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) visiting John’s gravestone.
Reeves previously pulled the “never say never” card about “John Wick 5.” Interview with Entertainment WeeklyHe added: “I mean, I wouldn’t do a John Wick movie without (director) Chad Stahelski. We had to see what that looked like. To me, it feels really right for John Wick to find peace.
The ambiguous ending of “John Wick: Chapter 4” has many fans wondering if Reeves will return for a fifth film in the “John Wick” franchise. In an interview with Empire magazine last year, director Chad Stahelski revealed for the first time that a more realistic ending for “Chapter Four” had been filmed and tested. In this version of the film, there was no doubt that John Wick survived the events of the duel.
“We had a different ending,” Stahelski said. “I actually saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was very clear that he was still alive. The audiences we tested absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending.
This ending conflicted with Reeves’ original preference to kill off John Wick for good. Franchise producer Basil Iwanyk told Collider around the same time that Reeves begged the “John Wick” team to kill him off at the end of “John Wick: Chapter 4.” It was par for the course for Reeves, who was so physically exhausted after filming every part of “John Wick” that it was difficult to come back for more. In this case, the producers again never fully listened to their star.
“After the second, third and fourth films, making these films became extremely exhausting and physically and emotionally damaging to Keanu,” Iwanyk said. “At the end, he always says, ‘I can’t do this again,’ and we agree with him. The guy is just a shell of himself because he goes and goes for it. He was like, ‘I want to be killed for good at the end of this movie.’ We were like, ‘” “You know, we’ll leave a small 10% chance.”
While Lionsgate has expressed interest in “John Wick 5” in the past, the studio has not included it on its release calendar yet. Meanwhile, Reeves fractured his kneecap during an accident while filming his upcoming Aziz Ansari comedy “Good Fortune.”
Reeves will return to the role of John Wick when the “Ballerina” spinoff hits theaters on June 6, 2025.