During Collider’s Directors on Directing panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Steve Weintraub was joined by directing legends Tim Miller, Andrew Stanton, and Chad Stahelski to discuss their films and upcoming work. With John Wick 4 still a year away, Stahelski surprised fans at the panel with a first look at the upcoming action film. In addition to the new footage, fans also got to see the first poster, which features Keanu Reeves front and center with nunchucks.
The John Wick franchise has been going strong since 2014, when Reeves first appeared on cinema screens as the titular John Wick—a former hitman who is brought back into the criminal underworld after Russian gangsters break into his house and murder his puppy Daisy. Returning to the business of murder is a perfectly reasonable response to having your beloved dog get killed.
John Wick 4 was originally slated to arrive in theaters in May 2022, but delays pushed its release date to March 24, 2023. Reeves will reunite with his former Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne in this next outing as Wick. The film will also see the return of Winston (Ian McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddick), as well as Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Rina Sawayama, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins, and Clancy Brown, who recently revealed new details about his character while chatting with Collider.
The John Wick 4 teaser, which amounted to roughly a minute of brand-new footage, showcased Wick training and beating up a wide variety of bad guys, including an epic shot of him using the nunchucks featured on the poster that was also revealed tonight. The trailer ended with Fishburne 's Bowery King blowing out a candle, which seemingly connects to the first image that was shared earlier in the week. Needless to say, this trailer is bound to get fans excited.
Earlier this month it was announced that Promising Young Woman’s Emerald Fennell had been brought on to write the Ana de Armas-starring spin-off Ballerina, which will center around a young assassin seeking to avenge her murdered family. Puppies. Families. This is the heartbreaking stuff that pushes people into the world of the underworld.
John Wick 4 arrives in theaters on March 24, 2023. You can watch the footage shown at the panel, which showcases the return of Baba Yaga down below: