Those of you who have enjoyed John Wick must be thrilled about the upcoming John Wick sequel. Until now, the movie was referred to as John Wick 2, but the installment finally has a title. While titles like “Retaliation” and “Revenge” might be confusing, the movie has a pretty cool title: Chapter 2. In case there will be more John Wick movies, the title will have a chronological meaning, as well.
What about Keanu Reevee’s perspective on the sequel? Here’s what he revealed to Collider:
…there's a great pressure. I mean, Chad Stahelski, the director, spoke about how there's one challenge of the first film, but then the second one, it's like the second record, it's like, "What do you do now?" And so, yeah, there's a big concern, and we don't want it to fucking suck. I think we have a really good premise, and it's an organic premise, and it's basically, to me there's John Wick and then there's John. You know, John is the married guy whose wife has died and that five years of his life; and then there's John Wick who's the mythical assassin. And in this, John Wick's past comes and infiltrates John's life, and John Wick, in a way, has to fight for John.
When will we see John Wick: Chapter 2 in theaters?
While the movie is in development, and we already know who the cast members are, the release date has been moved to February 2017. At least it’s the beginning of 2017; bear with me! The cast will consist of returning members, including John Leguizamo, Ian McShane, Bridget Moynihan, and Lance Reddick of Fringe and The Wire. Among the newcomers, we’ll see Ruby Rose, Laurence Fishburne, Peter Stormare, and Common, who will play one of John’s main rivals.
A Twitter post by Exhibitor Relations revealed both title and release date, as well as one of the film’s locations.
Keanu Reeves will travel to Rome to kick some Italian ass as JOHN WICK: CHAPTER TWO drops 2/10/17.
— Exhibitor Relations Co. (@ERCboxoffice) February 18, 2016
Asked if John Wick could become a franchise, Keanu Reeves did not give a conclusive answer. But his perspective sounds promising:
No, I still don't know. I mean, I think for me, I'm interested in what happens to the guy and in this world. So when we were speaking about it, obviously it did well enough for the investors to want to do another one, which is cool, and it's great to have the opportunity to further the story. But we had to come up with a reason why, and we came up with a reason that was good enough, that didn't suck, and we're just trying to make it better and better. In terms of a franchise, I don't know, until you do it and it's done, you don't know, because it's not source material, this is original goodness. (Collider)