John Wick: Chapter 4 is only a few months away, which means that fans won’t have to wait much longer before they see Keanu Reeves kicking butt as the titular character again. As you’d expect, Lionsgate has already started promoting the movie by way of awesome stills and explosive trailers that show Reeves’ assassin once again waging war against the High Table. Additional promo materials were released this past weekend during this year’s Comic Con Experience in Brazil. As part of its presentation, the studio unveiled a sleek, new poster that includes a fun optical illusion, and I’m so here for it.
One should never underestimate the power of a good movie poster, as they’re vital to bringing attention to a production. Lionsgate seems to understand this well based on the one-sheet that it dropped for the fourth John Wick flick. Instead of going for the “floating heads” approach, the marketing team settled on a straightforward close-up of the titular protagonist. However, what some people may not notice upon first glance is that the hero’s typical necktie has been replaced with an hourglass. The artwork, which was shared to Twitter, can seen be seen below:
His time is up. #JohnWick4 - in theaters & @IMAX March 24. pic.twitter.com/389zV9MBMcDecember 3, 2022
I’m not going to lie, I didn’t catch this when I first looked over the poster. To my usually keen eye, it simply appeared to be a tie with some kind of design. So I was quite surprised when I not only discovered that it was an hourglass but one that contained bullets as opposed to sand. You have to give the folks in Lionsgate’s marketing department credit for coming up with something so unique. And that’s not the only cool element to be found in the image.
In the bottom right-hand corner, one can see the initials JW, which clearly indicates that a John Wick film is being advertised. But what you may not see right away is that within those red-shaded letters, the roman numeral for four is highlighted in orange. It’s an incredibly subtle detail, and I personally can’t help but appreciate the level of care that went into this. It’s honestly very fitting, especially when you think about the level of precision that's necessary to craft these movies.
Toted as the series’ longest installment, John Wick: Chapter 4 sees the lead character apparently finding a way to destroy the High Table once and for all. However, the hitman is painted into a corner due to the emergence of a new foe, who has a vast number of connections. Chad Stahelski is back in the director’s chair for a fourth time and, based on the trailers, he’s really bringing his A-game this time. Still, Stahelski admitted that developing the fourth film was “scary,” as he ran the risk of settling for tried-and-true story beats. Yet as the veteran stuntman explained, he sought to change things up by incorporating “multiple storylines,” which he believes will make the movie feel “more epic.”
One can’t help but be hyped ahead of the delayed Wick film’s debut. Before it hits theaters though, I’m hoping that Lionsgate drops a few more advertisements that are as clever as this latest one. An exciting new movie release is one thing, but the notion of a memorable marketing campaign accompanying it is also sweet. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to clear some wall space so that I can eventually display this poster in my home.
John Wick: Chapter 4 opens in theaters on March 24 and is one of the biggest 2023 new movie releases.
