John Wick 4 alternate ending gave a conclusive answer to the titular character’s fate

John Wick 4 Director Chad Stahelski recently revealed that he filmed a very different ending for the newest installment, showing exactly how things worked out for everyone’s favorite assassin.

SPOILER WARNING: It probably goes without saying but there are very heavy Spoilers for John Wick Chapter 4 ahead.

We’re almost four months on from the release of John Wick 4 and certain corners of the internet are still trying to discern just how alive John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is. Yes, we were shown a grave site for the Baba Yaga but after four outings in which he survives stabbings, shootings, and getting hit by cars, it’s hard to count him out. After all, we never saw the body.

We’re expected to believe that Wick died from his wounds after a remorseful showdown with former colleague and blind martial artist Cain (Donnie Yen). In a recent interview with Empire however, Director Chad Stahelski said an alternate ending was cut, one that left no room for interpretation.

“We shot an ending where you actually saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was very clear that he was still alive,” Stahelski said. “The audiences we tested with absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending.”

The existence of an ending in which Wick is certainly still living would seem to bode well for those hoping the franchise continues, but the fate of John Wick 5 is currently as ambiguous as Chapter 4’s theatrical cut.

Stahelski said in the same interview that the goal for the series’ fourth installment was to create a solid ending that he and Reeves felt they missed with Parabellum. The character’s death was a certainty for them from their earliest talks.

“He’s got to die. And we got to come up with the coolest way to make that happen,” he said when discussing his and Reeves’ initial conception of the fourth chapter. “We’ve got to make it all about, ‘you can only have a good death if you had a good life,” he said. “That’s the first line we wrote on a napkin in Japan.”

The film’s thematic overtone certainly suggests that Wick is in-fact dead but Stahelski is still open to the possibility of a John Wick 5, and if you think Lionsgate won’t trot out Reeves for another go after a 432.4 million dollar box office, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

If you’re hoping for another chapter of gunslinging, knife-throwing, car-flipping action starring Keanu Reeves, why not check out everything we know about a potential John Wick 5?

For more concrete continuations of the franchise, there’s always the confirmed Peacock Original series The Continental or the upcoming film The Balerina.