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John Wick 3 Will Begin Shooting in Montreal Soon
John Wick: Chapter 3 is expected to start filming in Montreal next month. The highly-anticipated third installment in the John Wick trilogy brings a series of events to a head with Keanu Reeves reprising his as John Wick potentially for the last time on the big screen, though there are plans for him to appear at least one time on Starz’s upcoming John Wick spinoff series, The Continental, which focuses on the “inner workings” of the Continental Hotel instead of Baba Yaga himself.
John Wick and John Wick: Chapter 2 director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad are both returning for the sequel, which is expected to explore John Wick’s past as well as how the High Table works (which was first introduced in Chapter 2). Given how successful the first two movies have been – John Wick earned $88.7 million and John Wick: Chapter 2 earned $171.5 million, both against fairly moderate production budgets – Lionsgate is opting to give the third film a prime summer release date in May 2019. In order to meet that release date, John Wick 3 will reportedly enter production in April. And now, it seems the sequel will be returning to film in Montreal as well, which is where Chapter 2 partially filmed.
Omega Underground reports that John Wick: Chapter 3 will be filming in Montreal under the working title Alpha Cop. Production on the movie is expected to start on April 26 and take place in Morocco and Jordan, and potentially in Russia and Spain, though those two locations haven’t been confirmed as of yet.
John Wick became an astounding critical and commercial success when it released in 2014, which was partly due to the film’s accurate depiction of “gun-fu.” And that success is what prompted Lionsgate to franchise the story. With John Wick 3 and The Continental both on the way, it seems John Wick fans have plenty to look forward, and plenty more to learn about, seeing as much of the franchise’s world is still shrouded in mystery. However, as Stahelski previously noted, John Wick 3 should provide some insight into how the assassination underworld operates in their movies.
In addition to Reeves returning as the eponymous character, Ian McShane is expected to reprise his role as Winston/The Manager in John Wick 3, along with Laurence Fishburne returning as the Bowery King, Ruby Rose as Ares, John Leguizamo as Aurelio, and Lance Reddick as Charon. In fact, Stahelski once noted that Leguizamo and Reddick’s characters would be expanded upon in John Wick 3 since they’ve both had prominent roles in the series so far, but haven’t been given enough screen-time – or much of a backstory (via /Film).
Of course, John Wick 3 will introduce some new characters as well. The Wolverine‘s Hiroyuki Sanada will be playing the head of the Japanese crime syndicate who has a score to settle with Wick, with Reeves hoping for his former Constantine co-star Tilda Swinton to also join the film. While John Wick 3 could possibly conclude the eponymous character’s main storyline, that doesn’t mean the studio is done with the universe on the big screen. Lionsgate recently acquired Ballerina, a spec script that focuses on a female-centric assassin story. The studio reportedly plans on retooling the film into the first John Wick spinoff movie. But before that happens, fans can look forward to seeing John Wick: Chapter 3 hit theaters next summer.
