Keanu Reeves asked the team behind the "John Wick" franchise to kill off his character at the end of the latest film, "John Wick: Chapter 4," but the producers expressed hesitancy.
"John Wick" producer Basil Iwanyk shared the revelation during an interview with Collider, explaining Reeves was so physically drained after filming each "John Wick" installment, that it was tough to return for a sequel.
"After the second, third, and fourth movie, making these films is so exhausting, and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally," Iwanyk said. "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. He was like, 'I wanna be definitively killed at the end of this movie.'"
Iwanyk added, "We were like, 'You know, we'll leave a 10% little opening."
In "John Wick: Chapter 4," John Wick engages in a deadly duel to escape the High Table. He is shot in the third round, seemingly dying on the steps of the Basilica of Sacré Coeur, where he has a vision of his late wife, Helen. The film ends with Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) at John Wick's grave.
Director Chad Stahelski, in an interview with Empire magazine earlier this year, disclosed that an alternative ending was filmed and tested for the action film. In this version, John Wick's survival after the duel was unquestionable.
"We had a different ending," Stahelski said. "You actually saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was very clear that he was still alive. The audiences we tested with absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending."
The open-ended conclusion of "John Wick: Chapter 4" has sparked speculation about Reeves' return for a potential fifth installment in the "John Wick" franchise. With John Wick's survival in question at the end of "Chapter 4," the prospect of "John Wick 5" has become more plausible.
"I don't know, I guess I'm going to have to lean on 'never say never,'" Reeves told Entertainment Weekly about making another sequel. "I mean, I wouldn't do a 'John Wick' film without Chad Stahelski. We'd have to see what that looked like. For me, it feels really right that John Wick finds peace."