MOVIES | ‘John Wick 4’ First Look: Keanu Reeves Prays Before the Skull-Bashing Action to Come

The “John Wick” franchise isn’t known for being calm, but such is the vibe of the first look at “John Wick: Chapter 4.” Keanu Reeves’ fan-favorite assassin appears to be praying while surrounded by church candlelights. Consider this the calm before the storm. As CinemaCon footage confirmed back in April, Reeves’ character is going to have plenty of skull-bashing action scenes to fight his way through.

In the footage screened at CinemaCon, Wick was seen punching a wooden post to the point of his knuckles bleeding as co-star Laurence Fishburne served as his hype man. Wick also fights two baddies in the lobby of an art gallery — brutalizing them with nunchucks. The footage, from the movie’s first trailer, has yet to debut online.

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Joining Reeves in “John Wick: Chapter 4” are Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins and Clancy Brown. Franchise mainstay Ian McShane is back as Winston, the manager of the Continental Hotel.

The next installment in the “John Wick” franchise once again teams Reeves with stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski. Lionsgate has high hopes for “John Wick: Chapter 4,” considering each chapter in the franchise has outgrossed its predecessor. The original “John Wick” earned $86 million worldwide in 2014 followed by $171.5 million for “John Wick: Chapter 2” in 2017 and $327.3 million for “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” in 2019.

Stahelski revealed before he started filming “John Wick: Chapter 4” that he was anxious about how to top the insane stunts of “Chapter 3,” which included one action set piece featuring samurai on horseback.

“There’s been a couple days where I’ve decided to do number four and I’ve woken up in a cold sweat going, ‘Horses! How do I beat horses?’ I have no fucking idea, to tell you the truth,” Stahelski told Collider. “I have a lot of really cool ideas for the next one that I think are different and shocking and fun and unique. How to do them, I have no fuckin’ idea right now. I’m still figuring it out.”

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“John Wick: Chapter 4” hits theaters on May 23, 2023.

Variety