If you had told me back in 2014 that John Wick, what at first seemed like an ignorable little Keanu Reeves action flick co-starring Willem Dafoe and the guy who plays Reek in Game of Thrones, would quickly become one of the great minor delights of that year (and the decade thus far even), you would have been met by a very obnoxious snort and cackle. It goes to show you never can tell, especially when it comes to action films. John Wick proved to be a sleeper hit of sorts and one of the most stylish and agreeably straight-forward action films to hit theaters in years. And now, two years later, John Wick: Chapter 2, which is being helmed by Chad Stahelski, is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated movies of 2017, and what will likely be one of the first big hits of next year, with a prime February 10th release date.


keanu-reeves-john-wick
Image via Lionsgate

We've been getting bits about the sequel here and there, including the film being set in Rome, Italy, but the story itself has remained largely under wraps. The film will star a few returning performers, including Reeves, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick, Bridget Moynahan, and Ian McShane, as well as newcomers Laurence Fishburne, Ruby Rose, Common, Peter Stormare, and Riccardo Scamarcio, but no sense of how each will figure into the plot. Well, that's been somewhat alleviated today by the arrival of an official synopsis from Lionsgate, which you can take a look at below. There's still no sense of who the new characters will be in any real way, but in this writer's outlook, new information about the sequel to John Wick is more important than any Marvel or DC property.

Here's the official synopsis for John Wick: Chapter 2:

Keanu Reeves returns in the sequel to the 2014 hit as legendary hitman John Wick who is forced to back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, John travels to Rome where he squares off against some of the world’s deadliest killers. Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 2” arriving in theaters on February 10, 2017.


For more on John Wick 2, be sure to check out our recent coverage below:

john-wick-keanu-reeves
Image via Lionsgate
john-wick-2-trailer-keanu-reeves
Image via Lionsgate