Keanu Reeves was ‘shell of himself’ playing John Wick, wanted to be ‘killed off’

The producer of John Wick has revealed the brutal private toll filming the action blockbusters took on Keanu Reeves.

Keanu Reeves in a scene from John Wick Chapter 4.

WARNING: John Wick spoilers below.

John Wick really might be dead after all — which is just what Keanu Reeves asked for.

According to producer Basil Iwanyk, Reeves wanted to be “definitively killed off” in the fourth movie, which debuted at the box office in March and raked in a whopping $289 million in the US and more than $660 million worldwide.

John Wick: Chapter 4 marked the biggest success for the franchise — even with a reported $155 million budget. And — gasp — the film also included the biggest shocker of all when the title character seemingly died in the end.

Keanu Reeves as John Wick and Donnie Yen as Caine in John Wick 4. Picture: Murray Close

Despite Winston (Ian McShane) and The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburn) visiting John’s grave in the film, Iwanyk is still holding out hope that Reeves will reprise the role again.

There’s a “10 per cent little opening” that he would, he told Collider.

“After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally,” he continued.

“By the end, he’s always like, ‘I can’t do this again,’ and we agree with him. The guy is just a shell of himself because he just goes off and goes for it.”

He added: “We all want another ‘John Wick.’ We don’t know what it looks like and when it will happen, but we love each other and we love this world. It’s gonna be all hands to try to figure it out. Have we figured it out? No. And if we can’t figure it out, will there be one? No, of course not. No one is gonna try to just jam it for the sake of jamming it.”

Making John Wick 4 “destroyed” Reeves. Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Images

If Reeves does decide to return one day, Iwanyk looks forward to the story that the Speed actor and Stahelski ultimately develop.

“We’ve all become such good friends and we all like each other so much and we’re all so tickled by the success of these movies, critically and commercially that we all think to ourselves, ‘Okay, how do we get the band back together, in a way that merits a good story in the next evolution of John,’” he told the outlet.

“The way I describe it is that they’re like Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and I’m Ringo. They’ll call me and let me know, ‘All right, we’re showing up. Here’s where you show up, and here’s what our story is.’”

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission