“John Wick: Chapter 4” won’t be in theaters until next spring, but the first footage was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday.
While the movie didn’t have an official presence at Comic-Con, there was a surprise appearance by Keanu Reeves on Collider’s Directors on Directing panel, where he and director Chad Stahelski debuted a new trailer.
The trailer opens with John Wick (Reeves) in the snow. He’s talking to Hiroyuki Sanada (who fans of the franchise will know was originally pegged as the villain for the third film; here he seems much more serene), who says, “Have you given any thought to where this ends?” (His dialogue serves as the teaser trailer’s narration.)
He goes on: “The Table will never stop.”
Wick, at the end of the third film, was on the outs of the sinister High Table, even after paying a debt of part of a finger. We see tons of action (and John’s missing single), a variety of locations, and more Sanada voice over: “No one, not even you, can kill everyone.”
In short succession you see a very villainous Bill Skarsgård (of course); Donnie Yen looking cool as hell; Wick on the hood of a speeding car; shooting into the windshield; dogs; Keanu repeatedly hitting a guy with nun chucks; Sanada versus Yen with samurai swords. Also Laurence Fishburne holds up a suit and says, “Are you ready John?” Which is answered with a pitch perfect “yeah.”
Earlier in the evening, Stahelski said that the movie shot in Japan, Jordan, America, Germany and France (there’s a sequence with the High Table in front of the Eiffel Tower).
Franchise stalwart Stahelski, last seen alongside Keanu in “The Matrix Resurrections” as Handsome Chad, returns to direct. The screenplay was written by Shay Hatten Michael Finch, and returning stars include Fishburne, Lance Riddick and Ian McShane. Among the newcomers this time around are Skarsgård, Yen, Clancy Brown and Rina Sawayama.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” opens everywhere on March 24, 2023.