Keanu Reeves is back to crushing skulls and making movie theater owners scream with adoration, as the star closed CinemaCon with a first look at “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
Appearing during the Lionsgate presentation at the annual exhibition trade show, Reeves was greeted with lusty applause and chants of “you’re the man!” from attendees.
The next installment 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” grossed $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.
In the footage screened, Wick is on his perpetual revenge tour — this time taking on a decidedly lone ninja vibe — seen punching a wooden post to the point of his knuckles bleeding as co-star Laurence Fishburne acts as his hype man.
“I want you to find peace, John,” an off-screen voice booms as a montage plays of Reeves slaying his enemies, “but the only path this leads to is death.”
In the heart-pounding final moments of the trailer, Reeves takes on two baddies in the lobby of an art gallery — brutalizing them with nunchucks in a relentless, face-busting, merry-go-round motion.
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. One person not returning to the franchise is Halle Berry, who debuted as Sofia in “Chapter 3.”
“Sofia’s not in the next ‘John Wick’ movie,” Berry told IGN earlier this year, although the character might be getting her own spinoff film. “There could possibly be a Sofia … her own movie. So she might not be in ‘John Wick,’ but she might be doing her own thingy-thingy.”
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 samurais on horseback.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” hits theaters on May 23, 2023.
