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end John Wick: Chapter 4 It was a shock, given how (brake alert) It appears that the fate of the titular killer has been sealed. After making it through four movies as an unstoppable force, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick seemed to be killed off with the wrap-up. John Wick: Chapter 4. Some fans weren’t entirely convinced that this was truly the end of John Wick, feeling that it would inevitably be revealed in a fifth film in which the character survived. Meanwhile, other fans interpreted this as the end of the series, as it served as a way to wrap up John Wick’s story.
The ambiguous ending was the result of test screenings of the film. In a new interview with Empire, director Chad Stahelski confirms that a completely different ending to the film was shot. This ending wasn’t at all ambiguous, as it clearly showed Reeves as John Wick in the finale, revealing that he wasn’t actually dead. However, when this ending and the ending of the theatrical version were shown with test audiences, people seemed to prefer the ambiguous ending, which is why Stahelski chose to go with that ending for the final cut.
“We had a different ending,” Stahelski explains.[The theatrical ending] It was the ending Keanu and I wanted, but we made a different ending. We put an ending where you saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was clear that he was still alive. The audiences we tested absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending.”
John Wick: Chapter 4 ends with a bang
Stahelski also explained how part of the reason John Wick: Chapter 4 Getting such a shocking ending felt like an ending John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum It didn’t quite get it done. Since the director and Reeves have such great respect for the character and the franchise, they wanted a much stronger conclusion this time around, in case that turned out to be the end of the series.
“We didn’t feel like we did our best. We both felt we could have finished the series better,” Stahelski says. Because we love the character, we love working together, we love the world.”
In crafting a stronger ending to John Wick: Chapter 4Stahelski continued, “I just read this letter samurai called etiquette HagacorThe art of dying way. And we’re like, ‘Yeah, he has to die.’ And we figured out the best way to do that. We have to make it all about, “You can’t have a good death unless you have a good life.” This is the first line we wrote on a napkin in Japan, three years later. We wrote the movie backwards from this thing.”
Having John Wick’s death more mysterious could allow the movie to serve as a finale to the series, but it also appears that this may not be the end yet. Stahelski also recently quipped to Empire that he’s open to seeing the movie series continue, but is still waiting to see if there’s a strong enough idea for a story that warrants a fifth movie.
“Now we’re done with all four,” explains the director, “and we’ve completed the circuit, so to speak, I think it’s a good closure for the series. Then there’s the contender, or the real director in me, ‘F-k is, let’s just see if we can do that. ‘” It’s very attractive. I don’t have a “why” yet. But that doesn’t mean we should stop looking.”
