On March 17, 2023, one week ahead of the release of John Wick: Chapter 4, Lance Reddick died at the age of 60. The actor had starred in the action film series as Charon, concierge of the New York branch of The Continental hotel chain, thus giving him to share many scenes with Keanu Reeves. Nearly a year later, the John Wick lead recalled once writing a letter to Reddick crediting him with being the reason why people “love” his assassin character.
During a conversation with People at the 51st Saturn Awards, where he received the inaugural Lance Reddick Legacy Award, Reeves talked about how Reddick not only had “a fire for creativity, and for his craft,” but also a “grace” and was gifted with a great sense of humor. As such, he treasures the scenes he got to share with the Charon actor in the John Wick movies, and also shared the following:
I once told him … Well, actually I wrote him a letter, and I said, ‘People love John Wick because Charon loves John Wick.' Because that character loved John Wick, that made John Wick okay. And so when I got to act with him, we had such an affection.
While Lance Reddick’s role in the first John Wick movie could be described as a bit part, he got a little more to do in Chapter 2. Then Chapter 3 - Parabellum provided him the opportunity to jump into action with Keanu Reeves when The Continental was deconsecrated, promoting John, Charon and the rest of The Continetal’s staff to fight back against High Table enforcers. Sadly, early on in John Wick: Chapter 4, Charon was shot by the Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont as part of Winston’s punishment for letting John get away, on top of being declared excommunicado and the New York’s Continental being destroyed.
As Keanu Reeves sees it, without Charon, John Wick wouldn’t have been as sympathetic a character to the masses, so he used that letter to make sure Lance Reddick was aware of how integral he was to what could be the great action movie franchise of all time. Reeves continued:
The characters had such an affection, and offscreen, we had such an affection and just really enjoying working on the ‘John Wick’ films, our characters, getting to work with Chad [Stahelski] and on that series. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime project. I think he knew that. I knew it. And we just loved working together on it.
Although John Wick: Chapter 4 marked the end of Charon’s journey, it wasn’t the last time we’d see the character onscreen. Later in 2023, Ayomide Adegun played a younger version of the character opposite Colin Woodell in the 1970s-set miniseries The Continental, which can be streamed with a Peacock subscription. More importantly though, before his passing, Lance Reddick shot scenes for Ballerina, the Ana de Armas-led spinoff set between the third and fourth John Wick movies. Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane and Anjelica Huston also joined him in Ballerina’s cast alongside newcomers like Gabriel Byrne, Norman Reed’s and Catalina Sandino Moreno.
Ballerina, which will be Reddick’s final film appearance, is set to premiere June 7 on the 2024 release schedule. The first three John Wick movies can also be streamed on Peacock, but you’ll need Starz to stream Chapter 4, which can be added on to your Hulu subscription.
