Keanu Reeves was the one who requested John Wick: Chapter 4 end with that shocking twist.

John Wick started as a low-budget action film in 2014 starring the beloved Reeves, grossing a modest $86 million at the box office. The franchise quickly took off, with each installment garnering more financial and critical success than the previous one. The franchise has four films and an upcoming John Wick spin-off series coming to Peacock. It’s rare to see a franchise like this improve with each film, so fans wouldn’t be too surprised if they kept getting more.

In an interview with Collider about The Continental, the John Wick spinoff, franchise producer Basil Iwanyk revealed Reeves was begging for John Wick to be “definitively” killed off by the film’s ending. However, Hollywood doesn’t always work like that. When you have a character and a franchise like John Wick that is so successful, nothing is ever definitive about their deaths – they can always come back. Iwanyk explained how he negotiated John Wick’s death with Reeves, saying, “He was like, ‘I wanna be definitively killed at the end of this movie.’ We were like, ‘You know, we’ll leave a 10% little opening.'”

In the interview, Iwanyk also explained why Reeves was so adamant about having John Wick be killed off. “After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally,” explained Iwanyk. “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.” Reeves poured so much into the John Wick franchise that it makes sense that he would want a definitive end to his character.

This may be disappointing news to John Wick fans hoping to see the character return someday. However, Iwanyk has given a 10% opening if Reeves wants to return and said, “We all want another John Wick. We don’t know what it looks like and when it will happen… Have we figured it out? No. And if we can’t figure it out, will there be one? No, of course not. No one is gonna try to just jam it for the sake of jamming it.” So, in the unlikely event that Reeves returns to the John Wick role, fans can know that it will be done right.

Although Reeves wanted the character to be definitively dead, the producers made sure they left the door cracked open in case he wanted to return. Fans shouldn’t get their hopes up about John Wick’s return, but it will always be possible.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is available on Amazon Prime Video.

Source: Collider