The sequel to the sleeper-slash-surprise hit John Wick will start ramping up its production as it will start shooting this fall, with a release date yet to be announced.
Last year’s stylishly-tinged pulp-fest, starring the ageless Keanu Reeves as an assassin who exacts vengeance in the name of puppy love, did so well at the box office that a sequel seemed inevitable in passing.
That it was buoyed by great word of mouth and a warm reception among critics was also conducive to its success, along with (don’t forget) Reeves still having his inner Neo inside of him.
At the time of its announcement earlier this year that John Wick indeed was coming back, Lionsgate’s President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, Jason Constantine, said that they “knew that there was still so much more of this story to tell.”
For as weirdly inviting as the first film was — from its pop-comic sense of place, through Reeves’s ridiculously staged and choreographed gun-fu dances of death set inside a pulsing nightclub, to its gold coins — of course there has to be more “story to tell” in this bullet-riddled world.
Both Constantine and Eda Kowan of Lionsgate will manage the production of John Wick 2. Made on what constitutes as being a modestly budgeted film by studio standards, the first film — which earned a total of $78 million at the worldwide box office — had a budget of $20 million.
Unlike John Wick, which was co-directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, for the sequel Stahelski will go at it alone, with Leitch as his Executive Producer, according to a source from an exclusive report by Collider. Screenwriter Derek Kolstad, who wrote the first film, is still attached to write.
Even as there is no release date, it would be no overstatement to assume that we will see Reeves in John Wick 2 next year. That year, Reeves will also appear in Nicolas Winding Refn’s upcoming film, The Neon Demon.