Keanu Reeves Teases JOHN WICK 2 Plot Details; Says 'John Wick' Has To Fight For 'John'
After winning over both fans & critics alike, Lionsgate finally greenlit a sequel to 2014's John Wick. In a recent interview, star Keanu Reeves shared more than a few details on the upcoming action sequel.
"People keep asking if I'm back and I haven't really had an answer, but yeah, I'm thinking I'm back."
In a recent interview with Collider, star Keanu Reeves sat down to discuss his upcoming John Wick sequel and tease a few details on which direction the new tale may take the titular hero. The original film saw a retired John Wick return to a life he had left behind for a family, so where does this next installment find our hero? Well, according to Reeves, we'll find the legendary assassin in a battle for his own soul. Read his comments below:
“I think we have a really good premise, and it’s an organic premise. It’s basically — to me there’s John Wick and then there’s John. You know, John is the married guy whose wife just died, and that five years of his life. Then there’s John Wick, who’s the mythical assassin. In this, John Wick’s past comes and infiltrates John’s life and John Wick, in a way, has to fight for John.”
Sounds interesting enough, but it's easy to wonder, how exactly do the writers plan on continuing the story without repeating the plot points of the original film? And will Wick's beloved dog once again play an integral part to the film's story?
“‘Why tell the story? Why do we need to do this again? How do we do that without doing another dog?’ So we speak about John Wick, the next chapter, and what is that emotional hook? What is that? So I think we have a good idea of that."
Additionally, it sounds like if you were a big fan of the Hotel Continental subplot and the whole underworld of assassins, you'll be rewarded when the next installment hits theaters as, according to Reeves, director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad are both working extra hard to open that whole world up:
“Chad and the writer, Derek Kolstad, they’ve really listened to what people have enjoyed about the work and how they speak about it. So there’s definitely that influence of the other world, the Continental world, the look, the feel, what it is about the movie, what made people like it; is definitely being paid attention to and the world opens up in this chapter.”
The Knock Knock star and former star of films such as Speed, The Matrix, The Replacements, Point Break, The Lake House, Constantine, and many more, also added that the John Wick sequel should kick off production sometime near the end of October and also revealed that he's already been training for a few months to prepare for the extremely demanding action role. He even went ahead and teased how Wick's fighting style will continue to evolve:
“We’re gonna do the same kind of thing in the sense of — what are the guiding principles? So it’s longer takes, know where you are on the space, who’s doing what, action with consequence. And then going to other levels of what the gun-Fu was, which was Jujitsu and Judo mixed with weapons and different styles of weapon training. So we’ve been opening up, I’ve been learning some other tools and different styles of that, and trying to develop some more techniques in terms of Judo and Jujitsu and bring those elements into the work. And then we have some other things that might be a little different…But it’s all organic. It’s not like all of a sudden John Wick has superpowers, it’s got to be connected to the character.”
As for franchise potential, Reeves sounded a bit uncertain about whether or not there might be any further John Wick sequels past the second one as he says since it's an original creation, it would take a really good reason for him and the writers to want to return again for a potential third or fourth installment.
“I’m interested in what happens to the guy and in this world. So when we were speaking about it, obviously it did well enough for the investors to want to do another one, which is cool, and it’s great to have the opportunity to further the story. But we had to come up with a reason why, and we came up with a reason that was good enough, that didn’t suck, and we’re just trying to make it better and better. In terms of a franchise, I don’t know, until you do it and it’s done, you don’t know, because it’s not source material, this is original goodness.”
Head over to Collider to read their full interview with Keanu Reeves by clicking HERE!
So, what do you guys think about all of Reeves' comments? Sound off with your thoughts below!