‘I don’t know if my knees can do it’

Keanu Reeves recently told CBS News that he’s not sure his body will be able to withstand another “John Wick” movie. The action icon has starred in four “John Wick” films that have collectively grossed more than $1 billion, and he will reprise the same assassin role in next year’s spinoff film “Ballerina.” But as for “John Wick 5,” it may depend on the health of Reeves’ knees.

“You can never say never,” Reeves said. “My knees right now are saying ‘I can’t do another “John Wick.” So my heart is doing it, but I don’t know if my knees can do it.

“John Wick: Chapter 4” ended with John’s presumed death after competing in a duel to free himself from the high table. John is shot in the third round of the duel and apparently dies on the steps of the Sacré Coeur Basilica while seeing a vision of his late wife, Helen. The film then cuts to a final scene of Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) visiting John’s gravestone.

Reeves has previously pulled the “never say never” card about “John Wick 5”. an interview with Entertainment Weeklyand adds: “I mean, I wouldn’t do a ‘John Wick’ movie without (director) Chad Stahelski. We’ll have to see how that turned out. To me, it feels really right for John Wick to find peace.”

The ambiguous ending of “John Wick: Chapter 4” has many fans wondering if Reeves will return for a fifth “John Wick” film. In an interview with Empire magazine last year, director Chad Stahelski revealed for the first time that a more concrete ending to “Chapter 4” was being filmed and tested. In this version of the film, there was no question that John Wick survived the events of the duel.

“We had a different ending,” Stahelski said. “You actually saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was very clear that he was still alive. The audiences we tested with absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending.”

That ending clashed with Reeves’ original preference to kill off John Wick for good. Franchise producer Basil Iwanyk told Collider around the same time Reeves asked the “John Wick” team to kill him at the end of “John Wick: Chapter 4.” That was par for the course for Reeves, who is so physically drained after filming each “John Wick” installment that it’s hard to come back for more. In this case, the producers once again did not fully listen to their star.

“After the second, third, and fourth movies, it’s so exhausting to make these movies, and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally,” Iwanyk said. “At the end of the day, he’s always like, ‘I can’t do this again,’ and we agree with him. The guy is just a shell of himself because he just goes off and goes for it. He said, ‘I will definitely be killed at the end of this movie.’ We thought, ‘You know, we want to leave a 10% little opening.

Although Lionsgate has previously expressed interest in “John Wick 5,” the studio doesn’t have it on its release calendar right now. Reeves, meanwhile, opened up his knee during an accident on the set of his upcoming Aziz Ansari comedy “Good Fortune.”

Reeves will return as John Wick when the spinoff film “Ballerina” opens in theaters on June 6, 2025.