John Wick originally a 75-year-old man

Keanu Reeves has turned John Wick into an iconic action hero over the last seven years, but it turns out the role was originally written for an actor more in the vein of Harrison Ford or Clint Eastwood.

Franchise producer Basil Iwanyk confirms in the new book ‘They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Ass-Kicking Oral History of John Wick, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action’, that the title character was a 75-year-old man in the original script, reports Variety.

However, Keanu Reeves took the character and changed it, played it and turned it into one of the most iconic characters.

According to Reeves he knew John Wick would be a great collaboration. “We all agreed on the potential of the project. It has this character of John Wick, but then you also have the real world, and at the same time this kind of underworld. This den of thieves that have this honor and a code. It has this emotional connection with John Wick, who’s grieving, who’s lost the love of his life and has this mythical dark past.

And I loved the quest that he goes on to reclaim his life. And the world he moves through to do it,” said Reeves.

According to screenwriter Kolstad, it was Reeves who got his talons into the script and made it his own.

‘They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog’ written by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, will be published on Tuesday. Reeves, meanwhile, will return as John Wick in “John Wick: Chapter 4,” opening March 23, 2023 from Lionsgate.