John Wick 3's Ending Disappointing Keanu Reeves, Motivated Chapter 4's Story

John Wick 3's Ending Disappointing Keanu Reeves, Motivated Chapter 4's Story


John Wick director Chad Stahelski reveals John Wick: Chapter 3 almost ended the franchise, but seemed disappointing and motivated Chapter 4's story.
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John Wick series director Chad Stahelski has opened up about how John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum was supposed to end the action series. At the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, John is shot off the roof of the New York Continental building by Winston. He is later found by the Bowery King's men, setting up John's role in a possible revolt against the High Table.
Speaking with Empire, Stahelski revealed John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum's ending was almost the end of the John Wick series as a whole. However, Stahelski and franchise star Keanu Reeves deemed the ending disappointing, and began brainstorming ideas for John Wick: Chapter 4. Check out what Stahelski had to say below:

We didn’t feel like we had done our best. We both felt like we could have ended the series better. We didn’t feel like we stuck the landing, and that’s a s****y feeling. Because we love the character, we love working together, we love the world. I said, ‘I’d be p***ed if that’s how they ended the whole series. I’d be pissed at the director.' And I had just read this treatise on samurai etiquette called Hagakure, the art of the way of dying. And we’re like, ‘Yeah, he’s got to die. And we got to come up with the coolest way to make the happen. We’ve got to make it all about, ‘you can only [have] a good death if you had a good life’.' That’s the first line we wrote on a napkin in Japan, three years out. We wrote the movie backwards off that one thing.



Why John Wick: Chapter 4 Is A Good Ending For The Series

If John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum had been the final installment in the John Wick series, there would have been many elements of the franchise left unresolved. This includes John's ultimate fate as he teamed up with the Bowery King to wage war on the High Table. It also would have made it feel like John would be stuck fighting the assassin group forever, giving his character arc an unsatisfying ending.

By deciding to create John Wick: Chapter 4, Stahelski and Reeves were able to resolve John's story while also setting up a larger universe of different assassins and their relationship with the High Table. John Wick: Chapter 4 ends with John finally free of the High Table, seemingly dying and being buried beside his wife. This allows John a permanent rest, giving him a proper sendoff that leaves little to the imagination.
However, it's possible John will return, as Lionsgate announced John Wick 5, despite Stahelski being unsure where to take the series next. Even so, John Wick: Chapter 4 will likely be considered by many as the perfect ending to the franchise, no matter how many more films get released. If John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum had been the end of John's story, it never could have been resolved in a more definitive way.

Source: Empire