Keanu Reeves’ Best John Wick Replacement Was Announced 5 Years Ago, So Where Is It? — Gaming

Keanu Reeves got a career revival as an action movie star in 2014 with the success of John Wick, but his time as the assassin is seemingly at or near the end. John Wick: Chapter 4's ending killed John Wick in fairly conclusive fashion. This suggested that Reeves would need to move on from the modern franchise icon.

Escaping from John Wick has proven more difficult for the actor to do, though. Reeves is attached to multiple upcoming John Wick projects, including the franchise's first video game. He's expected to make John Wick 5 at some point given the lucrative paycheck he would certainly earn, and we can't rule out appearances in any future franchise spinoffs after his supporting role in Ballerina.

Part of the challenge in replacing the John Wick franchise is finding a role that will give Reeves a chance to tackle a similar high-profile, action role. Returning for Matrix 5 seems out of the question. Speed 3 has been teased, but it will be a different type of action film. Reeves does have some original action movies in the works that could launch fresh franchises as John Wick did 12 years ago.

High Octane · No Brakes How Well Do You Know Action Movies? “Yippee-ki-yay… let’s see what you’ve got.”

💥ExplosionsWalk away, don’t look back

🏎Car ChasesFloor it

🥊Fist FightsNo mercy

🚁StuntsGet to the chopper

🔥MayhemBurn it all down

In the 1988 classic Die Hard, NYPD cop John McClane spends Christmas Eve picking off Hans Gruber’s heavily armed crew one by one inside a single Los Angeles high-rise. What is the name of that skyscraper?

✓ Direct hit! Nakatomi Plaza — the headquarters of the fictional Nakatomi Corporation where McClane (Bruce Willis) is trapped. It was filmed in the real Fox Plaza in Century City, which was still under construction at the time. McClane’s barefoot dash across broken glass remains one of the genre’s defining moments.

✗ Missed! The answer is Nakatomi Plaza. The film was shot in the real Fox Plaza in Century City (then Fox’s own HQ), which is likely why “Fox Tower” sounds plausible — but on screen it’s the fictional Nakatomi Plaza where Hans Gruber’s crew holds the Christmas party hostage.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) introduced the shape-shifting T-1000, a groundbreaking villain that could melt, reform, and morph into anyone. What futuristic material is the T-1000 made of?

✓ Direct hit! The T-1000 is made of “mimetic poly-alloy” — essentially liquid metal — letting it flow through bars, sprout blades, and impersonate its victims. Robert Patrick’s eerily calm performance and the era-defining morphing CGI made it cinema’s scariest robot. The T-800 (Arnold), by contrast, is metal under living tissue.

✗ Missed! The answer is liquid metal (“mimetic poly-alloy”). That’s what lets the T-1000 pour through prison bars, reform from a shattered frozen state, and mimic anyone it touches. The older T-800 played by Arnold is the one with a hard metal endoskeleton under flesh — the T-1000 is a whole new threat.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) was a near-non-stop desert car chase praised for its practical stunts, winning six Oscars. Which director returned to the franchise he created decades earlier to make it?

✓ Direct hit! George Miller created Mad Max with Mel Gibson back in 1979 and returned 36 years later to direct Fury Road, with Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as Furiosa. The film leaned on real vehicles and stunts in the Namibian desert. Snyder, Villeneuve, and Bigelow are all acclaimed — but the Wasteland belongs to Miller.

✗ Missed! The answer is George Miller — the Australian filmmaker (and former doctor) who launched the series in 1979 and came back to direct Fury Road. Zack Snyder, Denis Villeneuve, and Kathryn Bigelow are all major action/sci-fi directors, but none made Mad Max.

In John Wick (2014), Keanu Reeves plays a retired hitman pulled back into a brutal underworld war after Russian gangsters break into his home. What act ignites his legendary rampage of revenge?

✓ Direct hit! They kill his dog — a beagle puppy named Daisy, a final gift from his late wife — and steal his vintage Mustang. That cruelty unleashes “Baba Yaga,” the boogeyman hitman, on the entire criminal underworld. The deceptively simple revenge hook launched one of modern action’s biggest franchises.

✗ Missed! The answer is they kill his dog. The puppy, Daisy, was the last gift from John’s dying wife — so when Iosef’s crew beats John and kills the dog (also stealing his car), it triggers the full “Baba Yaga” rampage. It’s the purest revenge setup in modern action cinema.

The Mission: Impossible franchise is famous for its star performing his own death-defying stunts — scaling the Burj Khalifa, clinging to a plane at takeoff, and a HALO jump. Who plays super-spy Ethan Hunt?

✓ Direct hit! Tom Cruise has played Ethan Hunt since 1996, famously insisting on doing his own stunts — hanging off the Burj Khalifa, strapped to an Airbus A400M, and performing a real HALO skydive. Matt Damon is Jason Bourne, Keanu is John Wick, and Statham headlines the Transporter and Expendables films.

✗ Missed! The answer is Tom Cruise. Matt Damon plays a different super-spy (Jason Bourne), Keanu Reeves is John Wick, and Jason Statham has his own action stable. Cruise’s real, no-CGI stunt work — the plane, the building, the skydive — is the M:I series’ signature.

In The Matrix (1999), Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills: one returns him to blissful ignorance, the other reveals the harsh truth of reality. Which pill does Neo swallow to wake up?

✓ Direct hit! Neo takes the red pill to learn the truth — that humanity is enslaved in a simulation by machines. The blue pill would have let him wake up in bed believing “whatever you want to believe.” “Taking the red pill” has since become a permanent piece of pop-culture shorthand.

✗ Missed! The answer is the red pill. Morpheus’ line is the key: the blue pill ends the story safely in bed, but the red pill shows “how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Neo chooses red, unplugs from the Matrix, and the phrase has outlived the film as a cultural metaphor.

Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) won Best Picture and gave us the roaring line “Are you not entertained?!” Which actor took home the Best Actor Oscar for playing the betrayed general-turned-gladiator Maximus?

✓ Direct hit! Russell Crowe won the 2001 Best Actor Oscar as Maximus Decimus Meridius, the Roman general enslaved and forced to fight for his freedom — and his revenge on the emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Gerard Butler later anchored 300, but the sands of the Colosseum belong to Crowe.

✗ Missed! The answer is Russell Crowe, who won Best Actor for Maximus. Gerard Butler led the similar-spirited 300, Mel Gibson made Braveheart, and Brad Pitt fought at Troy — all sword-and-sandal adjacent, but Gladiator’s Maximus is Crowe.

The Fast & Furious saga grew from a street-racing crime film into a globe-trotting blockbuster series obsessed with “family.” Vin Diesel anchors it as the gravel-voiced crew leader — what is the character’s name?

✓ Direct hit! Vin Diesel plays Dominic “Dom” Toretto, the loyalty-obsessed leader whose mantra is family. Brian O’Conner was the late Paul Walker’s undercover-cop-turned-ally, Luke Hobbs is Dwayne Johnson’s lawman, and Han Lue (Sung Kang) is the snack-loving fan favorite. But the wheel belongs to Dom.

✗ Missed! The answer is Dominic Toretto. Brian O’Conner is Paul Walker’s character, Luke Hobbs is Dwayne Johnson’s, and Han Lue is Sung Kang’s. Vin Diesel’s Dom — and his relentless “family” speeches — has been the heart of the franchise since 2001.

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However, he's been sitting on a great replacement role for years with BRZRKR. The movie was announced to be in development in 2021 and is based on the comic series of the same name Reeves created and wrote with Matt Kindt, which debuted the same year. Five years later, BRZRKR remains the actor's best opportunity to replace John Wick as his main action movie franchise.

Whatever action roles Reeves looks at to fill the void left by John Wick, he knows he can't just do the exact same thing. There needs to be an additional hook beyond Reeves playing a skilled killer in impossible situations. That's what makes BRZRKR the ideal next venture for him.

While John Wick is just a normal human with exceptional combat skills, BRZRKR will put Reeves in the role of B, a mysterious half-human, half-god immortal. He's lived for 80,000 years and has a variety of superhuman abilities, like strength, speed, and regeneration. B has a penchant for violence and has used his skills and abilities to kill countless enemies for all types of reasons.

Essentially, BRZRKR is Reeves' opportunity to play a character who has John Wick's deadly skill set with Wolverine's superhero abilities (which is one of Reeves' dream Marvel roles). If that isn't enough to capture someone's interest, the story spans multiple eras in history and has a rich enough mythology that this should have no trouble expanding beyond a single epic action movie once it does happen.

Reeves has been working on a BRZRKR movie since March 2021, which is when Netflix announced plans to adapt the BOOM! comic series just three weeks after it was released. The streamer signed the actor to star in and produce a live-action movie adaptation and an anime series. Netflix hired The Batman's Mattson Tomlin to write the screenplay later that year.

There were years of silence regarding BRZRKR's progress from that point on. Reeves was busy making John Wick: Chapter 4 until 2023, and then the WGA strike happened the same year, forcing any development on the comic adaptation to hit pause. The latest, most positive update came in 2025, when it was revealed that Fast & Furious veteran Justin Lin had signed on to direct the feature. Lin told ScreenRant shortly thereafter that BRZRKR was "one of my favorite projects" that he was working on.

That's the last we've heard about the movie, leaving it without a confirmed production timeline or release window. That safely rules out a 2026 release, while a 2027 debut could be in the cards if everything comes together over the next few months. But the longer BRZRKR takes to make, the more likely it is that it could get further delayed by additional John Wick responsibilities for Keanu Reeves.