by Justin Cook
Last year saw the release of John Wick, a fun, clever and exciting action film that featured a fantastic lead performance from Keanu Reeves as the title character.
Those who were hoping to see more from the John Wick universe are in luck, as co-directors of the film, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, are currently developing a sequel.
The film, which was Stahelski and Leitch’s first directorial effort after a career of working as stunt coordinators, grossed close to $80 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. Although it wasn’t a major hit, Wick made a solid amount of money for an action movie that wasn’t marketed as much as it could have been.
In an official statement, Stahelski spoke about plans of doing a sequel, saying, “We have ideas for days and without blinking twice we know we can outdo the action from the original. It’s the matter of story and how much you like the character. That’s always the most important. If there’s great action but you have a character that no one likes and doesn’t have charisma you’re not going to watch it. Look at any great action star, whether it’s Harrison Ford or Liam Neeson or Robert Downey Jr., pick a name, you love the guy first. Good action, bad action, you just love them in action. So we want to make sure we have a story and a character that everybody loves and then we’ll dress it with action that we promise will be awesome.”
At this point, it is not clear whether or not Keanu Reeves will return for the sequel, but Stahelski seems to have a great relationship with the actor as he said, “If we could work with Keanu Reeves for 10 movies you’d have a really cool career.”
Perhaps one of the strongest elements of John Wick was the world building, so it would be nothing short of awesome to see the directors go deeper into and keep expanding that world in a sequel.
As of now, Stahelski and Leitch are enjoying the attention that directing John Wick has brought to them, as they are in early talks to direct their second feature film, Cowboy Ninja Viking, which is set to star Chris Pratt.
Source: Movies.com
