With the first film becoming something of a cult classic, Lionsgate has wasted no time in giving John Wick 2 the green light. Keanu Reeves will be returning as the badass hero, and according to the actor, the sequel will see him play something of a duel role; as John the regular guy and John Wick the assassin.
“I think we have a really good premise and it’s an organic premise.” Reeves tells Collider (opens in new tab). “It’s basically — to me there’s John Wick and then there’s John. You know, John is the married guy whose wife just died, and that’s five years of his life. Then there’s John Wick, who’s the mythical assassin. In this, John Wick’s past comes and infiltrates John’s life and John Wick, in a way, has to fight for John.”
Reeves also addressed the usual questions surrounding a sequel, saying: “Why tell the story? Why do we need to do this again? How do we do that without doing another dog? So we speak about John Wick, the next chapter, and what is that emotional hook? What is that? So I think we have a good idea of that.”
Should the second film prove to be as popular as the first, is there a possibility of a franchise? “I’m interested in what happens to the guy and in this world,” says Reeves. “But we had to come up with a reason why, and we came up with a reason that was good enough, that didn’t suck, and we’re just trying to make it better and better. In terms of a franchise, I don’t know, until you do it and it’s done, you don’t know, because it’s not source material, this is original goodness.”