With principal photography having recently wrapped on John Wick 2, Keanu Reeves has been describing what we can expect from the highly anticipated sequel. The stakes are high for the follow-up, after the surprise success of 2014’s John Wick – which was praised by audiences and critics alike, and raked in $86 million at the box office, against an estimated $20 million budget.
John Wick saw Keanu Reeves as the titular former assassin, grieving the death of his wife. When he crosses paths with the wrong people – and those people invade his home, steal his car and kill his dog – Wick is pulled back into the hitman life, and goes on a quest for vengeance. It is a fast-paced, stylish action movie with a very high body count, and a performance from Reeves that many heralded as a ‘return to form’ for the actor. A sequel was quickly put into development, with many of the original team returning.
Chad Stahelski – who directed the first film with David Leitch – returns to helm the sequel, with Leitch producing. Bridget Moynahan, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo and Lance Reddick also return to their onscreen roles alongside Reeves. But, in conversation with IGN, Reeves highlighted the evolution of the John Wick world and its action scenes – in addition to new cast members Laurence Fishburne and Peter Stormare joining the tale – as reasons to be excited.
“For us it was just what is the next chapter? What is the continuation of this story? Opening up the world – the underground world. The world behind the world in terms of the assassins. Kind of evolving the action – if the first one was a black belt, then this one is third degree black belt. It’s such a fun project and a great character.
“Laurence [Fishburne] has this fantastic role as a character in the Underworld called The Bowery King. He plays such a great character in the piece and he brings of course humour, intelligence, charisma and fascination – he’s such an incredible actor and it was a pleasure to work with him again.
“And Peter Stormare – Stormare has more of a cameo in it but again he brings such fun and mystery and this mixture of groundedness and the surreal.”
As exciting as that sounds, patience is key, as John Wick 2 is currently scheduled for release on February 10th 2017.