The fourth film in Keanu Reeves-led action franchise, due out on March 24, 2023, showcased its first look trailer during Lionsgate CinemaCon presentation, unveiled by the leading man himself slaying enemies with nun chucks in the footage.
As Variety reports, appearing during the Lionsgate presentation at the annual exhibition trade show, Reeves was greeted with lusty applause and chants of “you’re the man!” from attendees. In the footage screened, Wick is on his perpetual revenge tour, this time taking on a decidedly lone ninja vibe, seen punching a wooden post to the point of his knuckles bleeding as co-star Laurence Fishburne acts as his hype man. “I want you to find peace, John,” an off-screen voice booms as a montage plays of Reeves slaying his enemies, “but the only path this leads to is death.”
In the final moments of the trailer, Reeves takes on two baddies in the lobby of an art gallery, brutalizing them with nun chucks in a relentless, face-busting, merry-go-round motion. Lionsgate Chairman Joe Drake before bringing the duo onstage said, “Chad, as you might know, was a stuntman first. It’s rare that people go from driving off cliffs to sitting in the director’s chair… Usually it’s the other way around. We’d worked with Chad on The Expendables back in 2010. He had the most unique perspective on stunts we’d ever seen. We placed a bet — that Chad’s vision coupled with Keanu’s singular screen presence would rewrite the action genre. And that bet paid off for everybody.
“Moviegoers told us that watching the first Wick was like seeing the genre evolve right before their eyes, with fight scenes crazier and somehow more real than anything they’d ever seen,” Drake said. “Shepherded by Chad in the director’s chair, and the Baba Yaga himself, these incredible filmmakers continue to subvert genre conventions and defy audience expectations. More lore. More inventiveness. Exquisite locations. From the Roman Catacombs, to Halle Berry shooting her way out of Casablanca. From John killing a 7-foot-tall hitman with a library book to horses galloping across the endless sweeping dunes of the Jordan desert”.
The Lionsgate exec added, “That’s how John Wick became more than a beloved franchise, a singular experience and a cultural phenomenon. An original story with no pre-existing fanbase that made it to the big screen, bringing audiences rushing back to the theater for a fourth time.”
Joining Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4 are Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins and Clancy Brown. Franchise mainstay Ian McShane is back as Winston, the manager of the Continental Hotel. One person not returning to the franchise is Halle Berry, who debuted as Sofia in Chapter 3. The film opens in theaters on March 24, 2023. Lionsgate also has in the works a John Wick spinoff called Ballerina starring Ana de Armas coming to theaters.
