Keanu Reeves Officially Returns for New John Wick Prequel

Published Nov 5, 2026, 5:23 PM EST

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation."

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

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John Wick is back...but maybe not in the way you might have expected. Keanu Reeves will return as cinema's deadliest assassin in a new prequel film detailing a key moment in his life before his movie franchise began. And don't worry about having to de-age Keanu with CG, because that won't be necessary.

John Wick exploded into theaters in 2014, vaulting star Reeves into the upper echelons of action stardom. Reeves starred as the retired assassin of the title, who returned to his old ways when his dog, the last gift from his late wife, was callously killed by the upstart heir to a criminal empire. After killing his way to the top, Wick soon found himself entrapped in the assassin life once more in a series of sequels, hunted by every other hitman and bounty hunter on Earth before seemingly going to his final rest in 2022's John Wick: Chapter 4. However, he still managed to find time to appear in the spin-off movie Ballerina, set before that film, in which he faced off with the title character, played by Ana de Armas.

Lionsgate has greenlit an animated John Wick movie, in which Reeves will reprise his role as the iconic assassin. But don't expect to find out how (or if) Wick survived his apparent demise at the conclusion of John Wick 4. The movie will be a prequel that will explore Wick's life before he gave up the assassin life and retired, as we first met him in the original John Wick. It will detail how he accomplished the so-called 'Impossible Task" that allowed him to escape the all-consuming criminal underworld and retire to be with his beloved wife, Helen. The film is set to be directed by Shannon Tindle (Ultraman: Rising), from a script by Ryan and Kaz Firpo (Eternals). Reeves and Chad Stahelski, who directed all four previous Wick movies, will executive produce with Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee.