SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains massive spoilers about the ending of John Wick: Chapter 2. If you have not yet seen the film, and don't wish to know any details about how it wraps up, please bookmark this page and save it until after your screening!
Right before the end credits roll on John Wick: Chapter 2, the audience watches as Keanu Reeves' titular character finds himself in seriously hot water. Because he's broken the rules for international assassins, he has a serious worldwide bounty on his head, and is stuck looking over his shoulder at every turn. It's a very dangerous situation for the hero, but precisely where the creatives behind the franchise want him to be within the bigger story -- specifically going rogue against the establishment and facing more threats than he's ever faced before.
Absolutely loving the ending of John Wick: Chapter 2 and the way it sets up an inevitable Chapter 3, I had to ask about it when I sat down with Keanu Reeves during the sequel's Los Angeles press day earlier this month. With my last question, I steered into spoiler territory, and asked the star about the decision to leave John Wick where he is at the conclusion of the film, and what's being done to carve out the next narrative. Reeves was giddy in his explanation, saying,
We wanted to come to a place that John literally had to fight for his life, and that he's starting to become a little anti-establishment. And that's really where the character starts to develop. It's like the rules and world that he lived by, aren't starting to work for him, and they're not working! There are people who are out to get him because of [his] transgressions. And we liked that idea because we like John - when I say 'we' I mean the producers, the writer, the director -- we like to see him suffer!
And suffering is certainly in store for John Wick moving forward. Thanks to John's years of loyalty, Ian McShane's Winston does him a huge favor providing a warning and a head start (more than Adrianne Palicki's Ms. Perkins got in the first movie, certainly), but that will only get him so far. There are no safe spaces anywhere, and the end of John Wick: Chapter 2 certainly makes it seem like 'Professional Assassin' is one of the fastest growth markets within the fictional world.
So what will John Wick do? As Keanu Reeves excitedly told me, the team of himself, writer Derek Kolstad and director Chad Stahelski aren't entirely sure... but they know that they are sitting on an idea goldmine and are starting to mine it. Said Reeves,
We wanted to put him in another vulnerable... 'How's he going to get out?! How's he going to survive?! What's it mean?! What's he going to do?!' I don't know! We have some ideas. Maybe he needs to go to Jerusalem! Or he's in the middle of the desert. Or whatever!
As you'll learn watching Keanu Reeves talk about John Wick: Chapter 2 in the video below, Hebrew won't be an issue, because the eponymous killer speaks all languages:
Right now, the future isn't quite set for John Wick: Chapter 3, as Lionsgate has not announced any official plans. That being said, the movie is off to a fantastic start at the box office, making double the money in its opening weekend that the first John Wick made in its first three days. If history is a proper metric, acknowledging the three year difference between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 suggests that the next film will be coming our way some time in 2020. Needless to say, we'll be very excited to see it when it arrives.
