People keep asking if Keanu Reeves is back (in John Wick) and, unfortunately, it seems he really does have an answer.
Speaking to CBS News in a recent interview alongside Sonic the Hedgehog 3 director Jeff Fowler, The Matrix star was asked about the state of his vengeance-driven hitman in the neo-noir film franchise.
“You can never say never, but my knees right now are saying, ‘You can’t do another John Wick,’” the actor, who voices Sonic alter-ego and enemy Shadow in the animated threequel, said. “So my heart does [want to], but I don’t know if my knees can do it.”
Fowler jumped in, joking that Reeves will portray the animal cartoon character for the next 20 years instead: “Which is why you can voice Shadow for, like, decades to come. No physical limitations! Just your voice.”
The question posed to Reeves comes amid the franchise’s 10-year anniversary and expansion into much-anticipated spinoff Ballerina, with Ana De Armas stepping into the role of a trained assassin (having since graduated from scene-stealing Bond girl to fully fleshed killer). Due in theaters June 6, 2025, the Lionsgate film also features Reeves as the notorious Baba Yaga, passing the baton to the young trainee.
Taking place during the events of 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the action flick also stars recruiter Ian McShane and training camp instructor Sharon Duncan-Brewster. Given the pic’s timeline, the late Lance Reddick (whose character Charon dies in the fourth installment), also makes a cameo.
Since its 2014 inception, the John Wick universe has crossed the $1 billion mark. The sprawling franchise now includes last year’s Peacock prequel limited series The Continental, as well as the forthcoming sequel series John Wick: Under the High Table; Lionsgate film with Donnie Yen reprising his role as the highly skilled, blind assassin Caine and in-the-works prequel anime movie.
Reeves, whose character faces an ambiguous, potentially fatal end at the close of Chapter 4, has spoken previously about the grueling filming process of each John Wick adaptation. Earlier this year, the 60-year-old actor also recalled a brutal knee injury he incurred on the set of Aziz Ansari’s star-studded comedy film Good Fortune, saying it “cracked like a potato chip.”
Talking with Entertainment Weekly last year, Reeves said of a fifth installment: “I don’t know, I guess I’m going to have to lean on never say never. I mean, I wouldn’t do a John Wick film without [filmmaker] Chad Stahelski. We’d have to see what that looked like. For me, it feels really right that John Wick finds peace.”
