Given the success of John Wick: Chapter 3, a fourth installment has already been announced in the franchise. But director Chad Stahleski had no intentions of giving the film a cliffhanger that could lead into a sequel.

Whilst speaking on The Empire Film Podcast, Stahleski revealed that when he was approached about returning for this 3rd film he had a number of conditions which were agreed upon. However the ending he wanted for John Wick was shot down, as he wanted the film to end with John’s death.

Chad Stahelski

“One of the things that I really wanted was, I wanted John Wick to die. I’m like, he’s dead. He’s fucked. There’s no way out of this, he’s dead. Keanu didn’t want to die. Keanu loves Hard Boiled, he loves it. He’s like, ‘fuck I love this guy’. The studio came back like ‘what the fuck are you thinking dude, everybody loves this guy’. Okay well then I’m not doing the ride off into the sunset. And ultimately that worked out best for both parties as I didn’t want to end it with a happy ending which ultimately leads to the idea of a cliffhanger.”

Seeing how it was essentially John Wick versus the entire world in Chapter 3 it’s understandable why Stahelski wanted to kill the character. But thankfully Keanu and the studio prevailed which means we get another addition to the John Wick franchise in 2021.

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