The following contains spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4, in theaters now.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is the longest in the eponymous action series, but Keanu Reeves' no-nonsense hitman kept his words short and sweet after the actor significantly cut his dialogue for the film.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski dropped almost half of John Wick's dialogue for the fourth film. Overall, the titular assassin has 380 words of dialogue throughout the film, which clocks in at a runtime of 2 hours and 49 minutes, the longest in the franchise. Comparatively, Reeves spoke a total of 484 words in 2014's John Wick, which had a runtime of 1 hour and 41 minutes. Reeves chopped chunks of dialogue throughout Chapter 4, ensuring his character dropped several one and two-liners. "It’s a shock when you work with him how dedicated he is to not speaking," co-screenwriter Michael Finch said of Reeves.
It was also reported that 10% of those 380 words spoken by John Wick in Chapter 4 appeared in the film's trailer. In all of Chapter 4, Wick's longest piece of dialogue is a sentence spoken to Hiroyuki Sanada's Shimazu Koji, the Osaka Continental Hotel's frontman, wherein he says, "You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend."
Chapter 4 opened to a franchise-best at the domestic box office, earning $73.5 million during its debut weekend in North American theaters with a current worldwide total of $138 million. At the time of writing, the neo-noir crime thriller is on track to beat the franchise record of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, which earned $327.3 million at the global box office.
Chapter 4 May Not Be the End for John Wick
While Stahelski has stated that both he and Reeves are "done" with John Wick for now, the director hinted at the possibility of a fifth installment in the franchise. This is despite Chapter 4 seemingly concluding John Wick's story with the character's apparent death at the end of the film.
"Whether you think John -- or John Wick -- is dead, that's your interpretation," Stahelski said in a recent interview. "These movies are supposed to be mythological fables, and there are consequences. When you do bad things, bad things happen." Stahelski also addressed why he did not film John Wick 5 directly after Chapter 4, stating that he viewed filming two different movies consecutively as "kind of a cheat."
While it's currently unclear when -- or if -- audiences will see John Wick on screen again, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Joe Drake has addressed Reeves's future in the franchise, stating that the studio was "not ready to say goodbye" to the character. "It's what alternative there will be... there's a lot of different things that we can do [to incorporate Reeves into additional John Wick installments]," he said. At the moment, there are two planned spinoffs for the franchise: The Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas, and a prequel series titled The Continental.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is in theaters now.
Source: The Wall Street Journal