Keanu Reeves recently traded in John Wick’s weapons for a bass guitar as he took the stage to perform with the band Dogstar for the first time in many years. Right now, there are many whispers about the possibility of John Wick 5 and whether we’ll see Keanu Reeves step into the role of everyone’s favorite assassin again. But if John Wick 5 does get a green light, we probably won’t have to wait over 20 years for it. But for fans of Dogstar and Reeves as an indie rock star, it has been a minute. Reeves’ performance with Dogstar is the first the band has given in 23 years. That is a long time to wait for a sequel. But, hey, it’s never too late for the next chapter—the band has also released a music video and will be going on tour.

Keanu Reeves’ Band Dogstar Renuites

You can check out some of the band’s reunion and Reeves’ performance with Dogstar below:

Keanu Reeves’ return to the rock stage happened at the 2023 BottleRock Napa Valley festival at Napa Valley Expo. Reeves took the stage along with his Dogstar bandmates, singer Bret Domrose and drummer Robert Mailhouse, also an actor.

According to SFGATE, “Reeves played the role of stoic bassist, barely speaking during Dogstar’s one-hour set.” But the crowd was incredibly happy to see him anyway. And Reeves did give a little hop of excitement while on stage with the band. We love it.

Somehow, being part of a ’90s alt-rock band feels like the correct hobby for Keanu Reeves. Maybe it has to do with the perfectly grungy bangs that take a starring role in this performance. And hey, if John Wick does come back, perhaps we’ll find out he’s been hiding in plain sight as a musical sensation. We wouldn’t mind seeing Keanu Reeves put his musical skills to work with Dogstar, or a fictional version of the band, on the big screen.

What’s Next for Dogstar? Music Video and Tour

The band has been busy since their reunion. In addition to playing shows, Dogstar has released a music video for its song, “Everything Turns Around.” Catch Keanu Reeves rocking out below.

Happily, we also won’t have to wait 20 years for Dogstar‘s next performance. The trio announced they’ll be going on a 25+ stop tour across North America and Japan.

First up, Hermosa Beach, CA. See you there!

Originally published on May 30, 2023.

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Keanu Reeves is the man of the moment once again, all thanks to the stellar success of John Wick: Chapter 4. Called by many, including us here at Nerdist, one of the best action movies ever made, “action” is the operative word here. Because Keanu really doesn’t say much during the nearly three-hour runtime of the latest John Wick film. Actually, he says only 380 words across 103 lines of dialogue, according to a report in Variety (via The Wall Street Journal). In fact, John Wick’s longest run of dialogue is only one full sentence. Yes, you read that right. Just one sentence.

To be fair, it’s not like John Wick was a raging chatterbox in the previous films either. The former assassin extraordinaire mostly preferred to shoot, kick, punch, and then shoot some more. But those previous John Wick movies were shorter in runtime. And they also had slightly more dialogue, so it probably all seemed less obvious. All of this was designed to be this way. According to the original report, director Chad Stahelski and Reeves “stripped out roughly half the dialogue written for his character in the initial script.” We’re guessing they thought that as far as John Wick was concerned, the action needed to speak much louder than any words.

Let’s be real here. No one really loves Keanu Reeves in this movie franchise because of all the witty lines he gets to say. We pay to see him kick a** in spectacular fashion. And that’s what Chad Stahelski and Lionsgate delivered. So making him a man of very few words was probably the wisest choice for the film. Judging from the box office results and critical response to John Wick: Chapter 4, we’d think most fans would agree.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is currently in theaters everywhere.

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For years, folks have fan-cast Keanu Reeves in various MCU roles. It seems almost strange at this point that Reeves hasn’t starred in a Marvel project—especially given his vocal passion for comic books. Of course, he did play John Constantine for DC Comics, and may do so again. But Reeves had Marvel aspirations. We learned from a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live (via A.V. Club) that Keanu has wanted to play one Marvel Comics hero in particular ever since he was 10-years-old. And this character is one fans have wanted him to portray for years: Ghost Rider.

You can watch Keanu Reeves talk about his Ghost Rider dreams, all while promoting his own comic book project BRZRKR, right here:

For years, Sony had the the live-action rights to the Spirit of Vengeance. Sony produced the two Ghost Rider movies starring Nicolas Cage. Eventually, however, the rights reverted to Marvel Studios. At first, Marvel was content to introduce the character on TV, and the Robbie Reyes version of the character appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But Marvel has mentioned that they have plans down the road for the original Rider, Johnny Blaze. They did tease us with a Donny Blaze on She-Hulk recently. But so far, that seems like an Easter egg.

If Keanu played Ghost Rider, we think most MCU fans would jump for joy. His Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4 was kind of a pre-Ghost Rider version of Johnny Blaze after all. But we actually think that Keanu would be the ideal Silver Surfer. He’s one of the last major Marvel heroes not yet introduced or announced for the MCU. And Keanu’s calming voice would be perfect for the former Herald of Galactus. If the whole Ghost Rider thing doesn’t work out at Marvel Studios (or they give the role to Ryan Gosling, who also wants the part) we would love to see Keanu on a cosmic surfboard instead of a hellfire motorcycle.

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By this point, we’ve all seen the “sad Keanu” meme making the rounds on social media. But what does the actual Keanu Reeves think of this particular bit of internet silliness? Was he actually sad the day someone took that pic? Or did he actually just have a resting sad face? (Yes, we totally just made that phrase up).

Well, the subject of the infamous meme actually came up on Keanu’s latest appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The beloved actor was there to promote the upcoming The Matrix: Resurrections, and of course Colbert had to bring up “sad Keanu.” You can see Keanu’s response to it all in the video clip right here, via the folks at The A.V. Club.

In his own words, Keanu said, “I had some stuff going on” the day someone took that photograph. But mostly, he was just really hungry. As anyone who has ever been hangry knows, it can put a sour face on just about anyone. But the John Wick star confirms he wasn’t having some deep emotional crisis at that moment. It had just been “a day,” as they say. Funnily enough, artist Ron Garney, artist of Keanu’s upcoming comic book series BRZRKR (pronounced Berzerker), paid homage to the sad Keanu meme in his own comic.

Another interesting tidbit revealed? There is one sequel that Keanu can’t get off the ground. And that is a sequel to his 2005 film Constantine. The original film, about DC Comics’ supernatural investigator, wasn’t a big hit. But it wasn’t a huge bomb either. But for whatever reason, even Keanu doesn’t seem to have the power to make Constantine 2 happen.

Of course, there’s a version of the character coming to HBO Max, and the recent Legends of Tomorrow version, played by Matt Ryan. But if we can have multiple Superman and Batman portrayals, why not John Constantine too? As long as Keanu keeps from doing a British accent, we’re totally for this. If you’ve ever seen Bram Stoker’s Dracula, you know why Keanu doing a British accent is not a great idea.

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Keanu Reeves is an international treasure. The affable actor has been iconic ever since he played Ted Logan in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He’s only added to his icon status thanks to movies like Speed, and The Matrix and John Wick franchises. And for years, fans have been wanting to see him join the MCU.

Recently, Reeves admitted in an Esquire interview that he would love to come onboard, it just hasn’t happened yet. But he definitely comes across as a big Marvel fanboy. Of course, there are but a handful of really high-profile heroes in the MCU left for Keanu to play. At least from the comics. So here are our top choices for Marvel characters for Keanu Reeves.

The Silver Surfer

Keanu Reeves is an A-list actor and he deserves an A-list character. However, there aren’t that many left from Marvel Comics that haven’t made it to the MCU yet—although there are still a handful. Of course, former Fox characters who are up for rebooting in the MCU count as well. The Fantastic Four, the X-Men… and yes, the Silver Surfer. And we can’t think of a Marvel part that’s a better fit for Keanu.

Keanu Reeves has the perfect energy to play forlorn alien scientist Norrin Radd, the man who saved his homeworld of Zenn-La from the hunger of the cosmic entity Galactus. To spare his world, Radd offered his life to the Devourer of Worlds, who remade him as his herald, the Silver Surfer. Keanu is 57, so just the right age to play the esteemed scientist in human form for just one movie, but also potentially voice him/do motion capture for the character for a decade or more. In the ’90s, they often referred to Keanu as a “surfer bro.” Well, let’s take it full circle, and make him the surfer bro of the galaxy.

Wonder Man

Here’s another relatively major Marvel Comics hero who somehow still hasn’t made it to live-action and is long overdue. We were hoping Wonder Man would show up in WandaVision, but no such luck. Simon Williams was a wealthy industrialist, one who lost his company thanks to a takeover from Tony Stark. Vowing revenge, he volunteers to undergo experiments that left him with “ionic powers.” He infiltrated the Avengers to destroy them from within, as revenge against Iron Man. But he reconsiders his actions (and then promptly dies). But this is comics, so he gets better.

When they revive Wonder Man years later, he becomes a mainstay of the Avengers. He also embarks on a career as a Hollywood stuntman and later, an actor. His acting career kind of dries up, and he mostly sticks to superheroing these days. For Keanu Reeves in the MCU, we’d get rid of the whole “infiltrating the Avengers” aspect of his origin story, and let him play Wonder Man as a down-on-his luck, middle-aged, former hero. Think of his Toy Story 4 character, Duke Caboom. Only with ionic super powers. We’d love to see Keanu Reeves with a big red “W” on his chest, sporting that flashy red jacket too.

Balder the Brave

We’ve seen a lot of the Odinsons’ Asgardian friends over the course of three Thor movies. But there is one major friend of the Thunder God’s who has yet to show up in the MCU, and that’s Balder the Brave. He’s fought alongside Thor many times in the comics, and yet, the movies have not seen fit to use him. As Thor’s “other brother,” they might have wanted to keep his main sibling relationship with Loki in the MCU, as to not overcomplicate things.

For years, Marvel mostly depicted Balder as merely Thor’s good friend. But in 2008, Marvel revealed that Balder’s true bloodline was kept from him, despite being raised in the royal court of Asgard. Instead of a foundling child, as he believed himself to be, he discovered that his true parents were, in fact, Odin and Frigga, initially abandoned because of Odin’s premonitions about how Balder’s death would lead to Ragnarok. Now that Ragnarok has come and gone, he might come back a little bitter that all of that was for nothing. All that aside, we just want to see Hemsworth and Reeves on screen together.

Nighthawk

Unless you grew up reading comics in the ’70s, chances are you have no idea who Nighthawk even is. But once upon a time, he was rather prominent. At least in the pages of comics like Defenders. Kyle Richmond was the son of millionaires, who lived a charmed life. His daddy’s money got him through most tough times. However, he vowed to change his life after a drunk driving accident seriously injured his girlfriend, who became a wheelchair user after a spine injury.

Putting himself through intense physical training, and buying all kinds of crime-fighting gadgets with his vast wealth, Kyle Richmond became Nighthawk. Oh, and he had super strength too, thanks to a special serum he created. But he had super strength only at night, hence the name. Nighthawk might not qualify for his own movie, but a Disney+ series would be a great vehicle for Keanu Reeves. Essentially, he’s a more pathetic, weirder version of Batman. And who wouldn’t want to play that?

Nova

At some point, Marvel Studios is going to get around to Nova. The Nova most readers are familiar with is a member of the Nova Corps, intergalactic police force, which MCU viewers might remember from Guardians of the Galaxy. Earth’s Nova was originally Richard Rider. Portrayed as a typical American teenager, he was a mix of Spider-Man and DC’s Green Lantern.

But isn’t Keanu way too old to play that role? He most certainly is. But there is another Nova from Earth, by the name of Sam Alexander. They introduced this teenage hero to Marvel Comics readers in just the last decade or so. A movie where a teen Alexander learns the ropes from an older Richard Rider, played by Keanu, would be ideal. We wouldn’t mind seeing Keanu in the Mister Miyagi role.

Namor the Sub-Mariner

Along with the Silver Surfer, Namor the Sub-Mariner is probably the most iconic Marvel hero yet to make it to the big screen. But we think his time has come. Rumors circulate that the half-human/half Atlantean prince will appear in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But that has yet to be confirmed. So assuming that he doesn’t show up, Keanu Reeves could eventually play him in a future project. Yes, he’s pushing 60, so that means he might be too old to play that character for another ten years. But since DC already has Aquaman out there, maybe having a slightly older Namor would be the perfect way to differentiate the two very similar heroes.

Featured Image: Lionsgate/Marvel Comics

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In the 1980s, Keanu Reeves was formidably known as time-traveling teenage goofball Theodore Logan. In the ’90s, he became synonymous with mega-action hits like Point Break, Speed, and The Matrix. Along the way, the high-profile star endured an extra helping of jabs from the sharp-tongued media. And though this trend may have softened his stardom for a brief period in the 2000s, it didn’t take Keanu down. At the crest of the 2020s, Reeves has mustered as much good will than a human being could hope to.

The paragon of humble masculinity ranks as one of America’s favorite contemporary pop culture figures. This to the point where he inspires pieces of fan art, like this new tribute from artist Scott C. The many cinematic faces, bodies, hairstyles, and outfits of Keanu Reeves—all with puppies!

Scott C

We first caught sight of this work over at Gizmodo. The 11″ x 14″ piece is—or will be—for sale over at Scott C’s website, home to the artist’s work en masse. At the time of this writing, you can only add the item to your “wishlist,” suggesting the proper sale stage has not begun. The site also notes that the sale will only run through July 25 at 8 PM PT. So keep refreshing if you want to make sure you nab a print!

If you’re the sort of Keanu fan who’d vie to own a piece like this, we probably don’t have to tell you which Keanu is which. But for due diligence, here’s the rundown (each row listed left to right):

Back row, upright: River’s Edge, Something’s Gotta Give, The Bad Batch, all three Bill and Ted movies, Parenthood, 47 Ronin

Middle row, sitting/kneeling: Point Break, Constantine (or The Devil’s Advocate!), My Own Private Idaho, The Lake House, The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic

Bottom row, on ground: Dracula, Always Be My Maybe, The Replacements, Speed, and an upright John Wick.

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Almost three decades after their music promised to save the universe, we’re finally going to catch up with our favorite pair of clueless rockers. We’re headed for a most excellent adventure with the Wyld Stallyns, in Bill & Ted Face the Music. No way? Yes way! What happened to Theodore “Ted” Logan and Bill S. Preston Esq., over the years? Which old faces will join them on their next journey? Here’s everything we know about the film… so far.

Release Date

The long-awaited film, first announced by stars Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in a short video, will come to both theaters and On Demand on August 28, 2020, just a few days earlier than the previous  September 1 release date. The August 28 date is only a week behind its original lAugust 20 release date.

Alex Winter revealed the news on Twitter, alongside a behind the scenes musical featurette. The movie’s official Twitter account also confirmed the new release date.

Official Synopsis and Title

The third film in the franchise will be called Bill & Ted Face the Music because the middle-aged dads never delivered on the promise of their utopian-launching song. They never actually got around to writing it. Oops.

Screenwriter Ed Solomon offered insight into how they’ll try to make that right. It will involve traveling back in time to watch their younger selves. Solomon said that will include footage from the original 1989 movie that has George Carlin’s Rufus and the Circle K, where strange things always seem to be afoot.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“The stakes are higher than ever for the time-traveling exploits of the now middle aged best friends as they set out on a new adventure to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe, helped by their daughters, a new batch of historical figures, and a few music legends.” 

Trailers and Posters

The film’s first trailer introduced us to the prison-hardened version of the duo we never knew we needed. (And also explained these insane behind-the-scenes photos.) It also made us think their daughters might save the universe and the franchise’s future.

The movie’s second trailer showed just how involved Thea and Bill will be in their fathers’ quest to unite the world. The teaser also offered glimpses at some of the famous musicians they’ll reach out to. Plus it gave us the return of the baddest bass player in any dimension, William Sadler’s Death.

We also love Orion’s official posters for the movie, especially the one with most of the cast.

Orion Pictures

Hopscotch and a Reunion

Bill and Ted, along with their daughters and a whole lot of friends, reunite with their old afterlife buddy and bandmate Death in a new clip. The Grim Reaper seems to still be suffering wounds from losing all those games decades ago to the Wyld Stallyns, as they find him playing hopscotch alone in Hell. Fittingly, only Death can cheat Death. Though why he’d want to is unclear….

This snippet also provides some insight into why he’s no longer with the band. He asks if they’ve come to sue him again. The end credits of Bogus Journey showed Death left the band for his own solo career, but rejoined the Wyld Stallyns after he bombed on his own. Seems like things did not go well the second time around.

New Clip Introduces Rufus’s Daughter

IGN shared a new clip from the film. It features the arrival of Kristen Schaal’s Kelly, Rufus’s daughter from the future. She has been waiting to meet the duo her whole life. But, unfortunately, these are not ideal circumstances. There’s “potentially a very serious problem” about their music that the future needs to discuss with them. Ted is worried, and so are their daughters, but Bill isn’t nearly as concerned.

Meet Bill and Ted’s Daughters

Bill and Ted won’t just be facing the music in their third film, they’ll be facing fatherhood. Brigette Lundy-Paine (The Glass Castle) will star as Ted’s daughter Billie Logan. Samara Weaving (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) will plays Bill’s daughter Thea Preston.

So how far will the apple fall from the Wyld Stallyns tree? In a statement, producer Scott Kroopf said, “When we saw Samara and Brigette together, it was like deja vu. It was exactly the way we felt when we first saw Keanu and Alex.” You don’t have travel to the future to know that means they will share some personality traits with their dads. Which is totally excellent.

Returning Cast

Reeves and Winter will once again be joined by the Grim Reaper himself, William Sadler.

He’s not the only familiar face they’ll see though.

The stellar news continues! Amy Stoch and Hal Landon Jr. will reprise their roles as Missy and Chet Logan, and @becbenit joins the cast as Deacon Logan! Who’s ready to #FaceTheMusic? ?⚡️ https://t.co/ZcKvetPjLS

— Bill & Ted 3 (@BillandTed3) June 27, 2019

Amy Stoch will return to play Missy, the only slightly older babysitter-turned-step-mother of Bill S. Preston, Esq. who divorced Bill’s dad and married Ted’s dad in Bogus Journey. Hal Landon Jr., who played Ted’s dad Captain Logan, will also return.

Joining the fray is SNL stalwart Beck Bennett. Bennett will play a character familiar to fans of the series—Ted’s little brother Deacon. In Excellent Adventure, Frazier Bain portrayed the youngest Logan. Bain doesn’t act anymore, having gone on to a career behind the camera. Bennett however feels like the perfect choice to play Ted’s annoying, fairly douchey younger sibling.

Newcomers

We love Bill Hader’s Barry, but the HBO series might not be one of our absolute favorites without Anthony Carrigan’s NoHo Hank, the breakout star of the show. According to THR, he will join the cast in a still secret role that will see him play “the duo’s relentless adversary.” Give. It. To. Us.

HBO

We won’t exactly be bummed out if he’s related (or even the younger version) of Bogus Journey baddie De Nomolos.

Deadline first reported Grammy-winning musician and actor Kid Cudi (Comedy Bang Bang) joined the cast. He’s been seen in images and trailers with the duo’s daughters. Emmy winner Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men, The Practice, Legally Blonde) plays The Great Leader, “the most powerful person in the universe.” She rules from San Dimas 700 years in the future.

Orion Pictures

Kristen Schaal (Bob’s Burgers, Flight of the Conchords) stars as Kelly, Rufus’ daughter from the future who brings a warning to Bill and Ted.

Orion Pictures

The always hilarious Jillian Bell (Workaholics, Rough Night, Brittany Runs a Marathon) will play a couple’s therapist.

Orion Pictures

Ed Solomon has also revealed one other new character we will meet is someone named Kelly, “which is George (Carlin’)s daughter’s name.” Kelly will apparently have “a very significant role in the journey.”

Writers and Director

Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) directs, with a script from original character creators and writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson. The duo worked on the screenplay for ten years, but they couldn’t find funding. Most people they approached wanted to do a reboot instead of another sequel, which would have been totally bogus.

Official Soundtrack Listing and New Weezer Video

Bill and Ted might have to still face the music for coming up short with their songs, but their new movie won’t. The film’s official soundtrack has been announced. Bill & Ted Face The Music (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) includes:

1. Big Black Delta – “Lost in Time”
2. Alec Wigdahl – “Big Red Balloon”
3. Weezer – “Beginning Of The End (Wyld Stallyns Edit)”
4. Cold War Kids – “Story Of Our Lives”
5. Mastodon – “Rufus Lives”
6. Big Black Delta – “Circuits Of Time”
7. POORSTACY – “Darkest Night”
8. Lamb Of God – “The Death Of Us”
9. FIDLAR – “Breaker”
10. Culture Wars – “Leave Me Alone”
11. Blame My Youth – “Right Where You Belong”
12. Wyld Stallyns (feat. Animals As Leaders, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah) – “Face the Music”
13. Wyld Stallyns – “That Which Binds Us Through Time: The Chemical, Physical and Biological Nature of Love; an Exploration of The Meaning of Meaning, Part 1”

“Rufus Lives?” RUFUS LIVES!

Available on August 28, the same day the film premieres, fans can pre-order the album now. The announcement also came with a new song and official video for Weezer’s “Beginning Of The End (Wyld Stallyns Edit).” It includes some new footage from the film.

Official Images

Orion Pictures’ has released some stylish official images for the film. They show the band, their daughters, Death, and Kid Cudi.

Orion Pictures

Behind-the-Scene Photos

The Daily Mail released the first photos from the set. They showed Bill and Ted with their time-traveling phone booth, along with some historical figures. Among this lot are Gandhi, Pocahontas, and Jimi Hendrix. Other images of the duo’s daughters also found their way online.

Bill and Ted are back!!!! ??? pic.twitter.com/vMyGi4fqvj

— James Keaton (@Mrfurious32821) July 2, 2019

I can’t even explain how happy this makes me. I really can’t believe this movie is happening. #billandted #billandted3 pic.twitter.com/wp512UlsHF

— Michelle Benson (@michelleb822) July 2, 2019

DINNER IS SERVED, bts pics of bill and ted 3 ???? pic.twitter.com/U1mVNENEnH

— ???? *:･ﾟ✧ (@bodaciouskeanu) July 2, 2019

And remember, we don’t have a time machine. So make sure you check back here for the latest news, rumors, and updates on the film. Even more important though? Be excellent to each other!

Featured Image: Orion

Originally published on March 25, 2019 and updated on August 26, 2020.

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John Wick has gone from being a relatively low budget success story with the first 2014 film, into an all-out blockbuster franchise. John Wick taking everyone by surprise by its awesomeness is what became ground zero for the Keanu-revolution. This success once again placed the seemingly ageless actor back in the spotlight.

This wouldn’t be Keanu’s first time filming a pair of sequels back-to-back. Keanu shot The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions (parts 2 and 3 of that franchise) back to back from March 2001 to August 2002. He is currently filming the fourth Matrix film for Warner Brothers.

Some hardcore fans have suggested that the bloody action franchise is actually an allegory for the five stages of grief, going by the the Kübler-Ross model. If that’s true, than it sure makes sense as to why we know already there will be a fifth chapter for this series. Will the fifth movie have the subtitle of John Wick: Chapter 5: Acceptance?

Lionsgate Films

The real question is whether or not Keanu hangs up his suit and guns after part five. It seems that five films is enough to carry this tale of revenge and secret assassin organizations to its natural conclusion. But who would have ever thought we’d ever even get two, let alone three of these films? We just know we are here for all the John Wick they want to throw at us, and then some.

Featured Image: Lionsgate Films

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John Wick is an international man of mystery, the MacGyver of murder, and a lover of adorable animals. By all accounts, he has led an incredibly sad life. But what if these gun fu-filled movies were actually a larger allegory about the stages of grief? Join Dan Casey on a brand new Explainiac as he dives in to the popular fan theory.

Source: http://bit.ly/2TIK88k

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The High Table may think their secrets are undetectable to the outside world, but they are wrong. Truth Serum, a web mini-series in the John Wick universe, stars Eddie Jemison (iZombie) as Banks Jenkins, a talk-show host determined to crack the code behind The Continental and High Table.

The four-episode series is less than 15 minutes long, but it covers a lot of ground. Jenkins quickly pieces together mysterious photos and secret footage to realize the truth about everything. He’s not shy about calling out the High Table’s murderous deeds and proclaiming that its existence is detrimental to the world. After all, there’s no global organization conspiracy with some fear of humanity’s doom, right?

It’s honestly cool how the series uses snippets from the movie and background details like Jenkins’ board connecting several deaths. We also have phone calls from people who were likely background characters in the films. There’s lots of humor as he ponders why The CON-tinential (as he calls it) doesn’t rent rooms, initially ignores John Wick’s presence, and wonders what ex-communicado means.

Have you seen this man? Find out the truth behind New York City’s darkest secrets…

— John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (@JohnWickMovie) September 5, 2019

And yes, he admits that John Wick is a well-dressed and ridiculously cool man. Truth Serum pokes fun at some of the High Table’s tech. It even sends investigative teams to find out more information, which doesn’t end well for Jenkins.

This story is a fun way to explore a different side of John Wick’s world that fans don’t get to see in the movies. It may not be enough to tide fans over until John Wick: Chapter 4’s release but perhaps there will be another installment to reveal what happens to Jenkins after that fateful message. Let’s hope he’s rich and has a gun.

Image Credit: Lionsgate

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Between Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4, a potential role in the MCU, John Wick 3, the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, the filming of Bill & Ted Face the Music, and just generally being an awesome human, it feels like every pop culture story this year has been about Keanu Reeves. (It’s really only been 85 to 90 percent, tops.) He’s become so unstoppable in 2019, he’s even appearing in old movies now, thanks to one of the most fascinating and terrifying technologies of the 21st century, deepfake videos. Say hello to this little video of Keanu Reeves replacing Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s 1983 cult classic Scarface.

This video comes from the YouTube channel derpfakes, which previously put Christopher Reeve into Justice League and Harrison Ford into Solo. Now, would we really watch yet another remake of Scarface if it starred Keanu Reeves? Yes, of course, don’t ask such silly questions. We’ll watch any movie he’s in. The real question is, how scared should we be by deepfake technology? Very. Not only is it improving, but like all technology, eventually it will be far more accessible to a mass audience. Which means it will be accessible to all of our archenemies. Something tells us if they ever put our faces into a movie, it won’t be the kind Al Pacino or Keanu Reeves starred in.

But in the meantime, we can still try to enjoy these videos for what they are, including yet another one of Reeves replacing a beloved celebrity. This deepfake from YouTuber Ctrl Shift Face puts the actor’s face on Bruce Lee’s during the late martial artist’s iconic “be water” interview.

Somehow this is both cooler and more terrifying than seeing him in Scarface, but we’re sure a better and/or more unsettling one will come along soon enough. With the way 2019 has become the year of Keanu, by the end of the year he’ll appear in every movie ever made.

Maybe this technology isn’t all bad.

Featured Image: Universal Pictures/derpfake

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We might live in a highly partisan, highly divided world where it seems no one can agree on anything, including things like basic human decency, but that’s only mostly true. Keanu Reeves currently sports an approval rating of 103%, with a margin of error around “you’d have to be insane not to like him.” Not only did he give the world John Wick 3 and Toy Story 4‘s Duke Caboom this year, he continues to be a source of positivity wherever he goes. That includes going the extra mile to let someone know they too are “breathtaking,” like he did recently when he pulled over to autograph a yard sign, without even being asked to.

Bill & Ted Face the Music writer Ed Solomon shared a quick story with on Twitter with images of what happened when Keanu Reeve’s saw a handmade lawn poster that said “YOU’RE BREATHTAKING” while driving to the set of the movie. The actor stopped the car so he could write “Stacey, you’re breathtaking!” along with his signature.

So yesterday this sign was out on a lawn on the way to set. Keanu jumped out of the car and did this. pic.twitter.com/OI1bQJ1nfy

— Ed Solomon (@ed_solomon) July 18, 2019

Well played, Stacey… whoever you are.

If you’ve been closely following the Year of Keanu that 2019 has become, you’ll know that “breathtaking” has become the unofficial word to truly capture how fans feel about the actor. When he made a surprise appearance at this year’s E3, where his role in Cyberpunk was revealed, a fan in the audience screamed out, “You’re breathtaking,” to which he replied, “You’re breathtaking! You’re all breathtaking!”

Thanks Keanu. These days we can all afford to hear or read something like that. And, if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it really means something coming from you.

Featured Image: Netflix

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Thanks to modder JinMarr, you can replace Snake with Keanu in the game’s PC version. You have two options for which Keanu you want to play as: John Wick or Johnny Silverhand from Cyberpunk 2077. The John Wick mod features Keanu in his assassin attire—a suit—with his beautiful mane of hair and gorgeous beard. The Johnny Silverhand mod features his cool-guy aviators and of course, the silver hand! Both mods exude Keanu’s overall ease and cool aura. If this sounds like your kind of mod, you can get it right here. 

These mods really capture Keanu’s likeness and it’s cool to see him rendered so well into Metal Gear. Wick especially embodies the vengeful spirit of Snake and his stealth skills. Silverhand’s involvement in the Fourth Corporate War and his ghostly presence in Cyberpunk 2077 makes him a good choice, too. Even with this uncanny believability, there are still limitations. Mainly, the mod doesn’t change Snake’s voice, so you still hear Kiefer Sutherland as Snake. Still, it’s worth it to see Keanu kick butt in this game. 

Now, the real question is, can we get John Wick’s dog into the game? Or, can we get another Keanu character, like Neo or Johnny Utah into Metal Gear? What we could give to see a Neo block bullets or a Utah skydiving out a helicopter. Or maybe Duke Caboom driving a sick motorcycle ride. For now, we’ll just enjoy the fact that Keanu has graced our video game screens again.

Images: Lionsgate, JinMarr

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It’s official: We are in the midst of a full-on “Keanussance.” Thanks to Keanu Reeves’ resurgence in the John Wick franchise, his appearances in Always Be My Maybe and Cyberpunk 2077, and his status as the world’s best traveling companion, the Canadian actor is seemingly omnipresent. The cherry on top of this sundae is Reeves’ role as Duke Caboom, Canada’s greatest motorcycle stuntman (well, the toy version of him anyway), in the newest chapter on the Toy Story franchise. During the press conference for Toy Story 4, Keanu talked about his latest iconic character turn.

One journalist pointed out to Keanu that Duke Caboom comes across as both a badass and very confident, but that he seems to be “a crybaby.” Without missing a beat, Reeves had the perfect response.

“What’s wrong with that?” Reeves asked. “There’s so many different kinds of people going through different things. Duke Caboom just happened to be a crybaby. And super with a big heart and [a] brave [person] who loved life, and so I think that there’s a bit of Duke Caboom in all of us.”

For the record, Duke was always meant to be Canadian even before Reeves joined the film’s cast. According to director Josh Cooley, Caboom was always meant to represent the Great White North.

“Yes. From day one,” Cooley explained. What made Keanu’s casting even better is that fact that he spent many of his formative years in Toronto, and is a real-life motorcycle enthusiast. It was the part he was born to play. In fact, most of Duke’s sequences were animated by an almost entirely Canadian crew, which Keanu dubbed “The Maple Leaf crew.”

When asked by a member of the audience whether or not we’d see Keanu take on more comedic roles, all Keanu had to say was “I don’t know. I hope so.” (Yes, we hope so too).  “Actually, when I was playing Duke Caboom, to get into character, I would go, ‘Kaboom.'”

But Keanu Reeves as Duke Caboom wasn’t the only character that seemed tailor-made for the actor portraying it. Mad Men alum Christina Hendricks plays Gabby Gabby, a creepy old baby doll who has been languishing in an antique shop for decades. And she just might be a little bit mad. Gabby Gabby has a set of minions that look like terrifying old-timey ventriloquist dummies, the kind that have scarred the psyches of many a child and adorned many a Goosebumps cover. But in Hendricks’ case, they weren’t so scary. As it turns out, she was the one child who loved those things.

“I thought you guys had done like weird background research on me,” Hendricks said. “Because I actually have a ventriloquist doll in my house that I wanted my entire life.”

Not creepy at all Christina! (But also, a little punk rock too?)

Toy Story 4 is in theaters on June 21. Read our review!

Images: Pixar

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After seeing John Wick take down his opponents with everything from a pencil to a book to all manner of weaponry, it’s now your turn to step into his blood-slicked shoes. In John Wick Hex, the new strategy game from Bithell Games and Good Shepherd Entertainment, you will become the Baba Yaga as you maneuver John Wick through a variety of levels, neutralize your opponents, and make a series of tactical choices to ensure that our favorite dog person will live long enough to make another movie.

Serving as a prequel for the fan-favorite action-thriller movies, John Wick Hex gives you a surprisingly fluid system for executing stylish sequences of gun-fu action. As you move John Wick across a hexagonal grid (hence the name), you’ll constantly be bombarded with difficult choices to make. Do I take the shot or do I throw my weapon? Do I parry an incoming blow or push an enemy out of the way? Do I take time to bandage my wounds or drop to a crouching position to pop off a perfect headshot?

As you make these decisions, the world will come screeching to a halt, but in a good way. Time freezes as you give John his marching orders. But choose carefully because your actions, and those of your enemies, will be displayed at the top of the screen in a clever timeline mechanic which will be immediately familiar to anyone who has spent any amount of time editing video. You’ll constantly be weighing the risk of your actions relative to what your opponents are hoping to do to you. It all serves to allow you to weave a grand, murderous tapestry of death and destruction as you stitch together these actions like a director would create one of John Wick’s stunning action sequences.

To go deeper inside the weird, wonderful world of John Wick Hex, I sat down with director Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone) to discuss how he approached making our favorite assassin feel as delightfully dangerous as he is on the big screen.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Nerdist: What motivated the decision for the editing video timeline mechanic?

Mike Bithell: It was actually surprisingly late. Obviously, we’ve been working on this with the film studio, and the initial pitch I made to them was, “It’s X-COM, but because John Wick’s such a badass he doesn’t need a squad.” So, you have one character against [the world.] We made that prototype and it sucked. It was really bad because what was happening was, you take your turn, you move, and then you watch as five enemies did their thing and you spent most of the game just watching enemies do their thing in turns.

I wasn’t very comfortable with it. I was a bit worried about where it was going. We’re based in the UK, and we fly out to LA to demo this to Jason Constantine, who’s the executive producer of John Wick franchise across the board at Lionsgate. I demo to him and he’s like, “Mike, why is John Wick waiting his turn to do something? What the hell are you doing? This is ridiculous.” Honestly in that moment I was just like, “Well, it’s the genre, it’s the type of work.”

So I booted up my videos of X-COM, Mario + Rabbids, and he’s like, “No worries, man. You’re the game designer. Looks weird to me, but you do you. I respect you, I know your pedigree, blah, blah, blah. It’s all fine.”

And then I just spend an 11-hour flight home just like “I’m f***ed.”

Nerdist: Oh no!

Mike Bithell: I sat down with the team and we just kind of tried to work out what…we like about turn-based games. We like that it gives you time to make a decision, we like that you make strategic choices. How do you do that while also having that overlapping action stuff? Of being able to interrupt an enemy and then shoot their friend and move your way through. And how do you structure that and build that? The timeline thing just was a really nice solution to that. It’s a way of achieving what we needed: that strategic opportunity of thinking time, which results in something that looks more like a John Wick fight scene.

Nerdist: Do you expect people to fall into a rhythm as they play? Or is it kind of stop-and-start as you assess the scenario?

Mike Bithell: Genuinely, people get fast. When I’m demoing it, I’m really slow because I’m talking it through, or I’m distracted. But when I’m playing it… For me, it’s like a real-time game at this point. I intuitively know how long I’ve got, how it’s working. That’s not me showing off, by the way—I made it. So as you get better and better, it gets faster. What we found is that people kind of don’t remember it being stop-start. You’re going to remember it tomorrow as, “I did this, and I did that.” You know how you go temporarily blind every time you move your eyes? Because of the motion blurring, you’ll never see your eyes move. You’ve done that? When you look in the mirror, and you look at one eye and then you look at the other, and you never see them?

Nerdist: No, but I will after this!

Mike Bithell: When you go home, look in the mirror. Look at your left eye, then look at your right eye. You will not see your eyes move. And the reason for that is the motion block. You’d be constantly throwing up and falling over. Your brain constantly switches off your eyes every time your eyes move and you never notice it and you’re not even aware it’s happening. It’s not like every freeze frame, you’re going, “What’s up with my eyes?” Your brain just prevents you from that, because you don’t need it.

I think it’s similar with this, just because it’s got that flow to it. People just kind of fill in the gaps. They don’t really pay attention to how long they’ve been in the pause. And then, because it becomes more and more intuitive as you play it for longer, it just becomes almost real-time point.

Nerdist: What appealed to you about making a game in the world of John Wick?

Mike Bithell: I mean, I’m this fanboy. I think I’m like a lot of people; I didn’t see it until DVD. It was not a movie that I saw in cinema on first viewing. And then I became that guy in the group of friends who was introducing people to it and being like, “You gotta see this, man.” That nightclub scene, Jesus. I was showing it to people who had come back to my place after a night out. Weirdly, my father-in-law and his wife were staying with us—and this was before we were working on it—and he loves John Wick and she’d never seen it. He was like, “Let’s put that on,” and she’s like the sweetest lady. My partner and I were like, “She’s not gonna like this!”

Nerdist: She’s in for a surprise!

Mike Bithell: And I was like, “Dad’s about to f*** this up.” And, yeah, she hated it! But, I’ve always been into it. I was into it for two specific reasons, which were: the combat and the way that fight choreography’s done. Just respecting how they put that together that internal logic. When I started thinking about writing the game content…I get excited, ’cause yeah, that internal logic really works for that content. The other thing is that [it’s] kind of dark, almost like a vampire movie with no vampires. Kind of mysterious, conspiracy, fantasy stuff. I love that. I wanted to kind of play with that, and when they came to me to direct, I was just like, “Yeah, I would love to play with John Wick!”

Nerdist: I showed it to my girlfriend for the first time recently and I think right before Alfie Allen and his goons came in, she’s like “Oh my God, is he gonna solve crimes with the dog for the rest of the movie?” I was like, “You could say that…”

Mike Bithell: Oh no! Yeah, he’s gonna solve a crime involving the dog.

Nerdist: Hard to bite my tongue for that one.

Mike Bithell: Oh my God, yeah, there’s this audible kind of shriek when you show that moment to people. I love it.

Nerdist: How did you want to create your own John Wick moments in this? Or do you want the player to become the author of their own John Wick moments?

Mike Bithell: I wanted to give choice. That’s the thing—I think, look to movies and we try to break it down into verbs because with games, obviously, you do have to break it down. What are the verbs of John Wick? You shoot people, you move, you use different melee attacks on them, you push people. You do this, you do that. So, you try to break it down into verbs and then work out ways we could string that together. It was interesting, because you’re always trying to find a way to invent stuff.

We need to figure out like, if I do this then, then this, then this and that’s a badass strategy. And you see them emerging; with the people who play the game long enough, you start seeing specific tactics. They’re like, “I’m the guy who always clings to walls, so I’m covering corners in this group.” “I’m the guy who reloads my gun by throwing it at someone.” If you make the verbs interesting enough and you make them interrelated in an interesting way, then yeah, you get this emerging complexity, which is great.

Nerdist: Resource management is very important in John Wick Hex. You’re counting ammo, making tough choices about conservation of momentum or generation of it. What motived that as the driving factor of gameplay?

Mike Bithell: The movie. It’s a tempo thing. The reload is so important. It’s funny. It’s what a lot of collaboration gets at, [I got to work with director Chad Stahelski on it, and we were literally working on this in the room while he was cutting the movie. He was using me as an excuse to avoid finishing the movie. The stunt guy’s chatting to them. I trained with them a bit. Not well, I’m not physically equipped to be a serious martial artist, but I had fun with it. One of the things [stunt coordinator] Jojo [Eusebio] was really drilling into me is that the thing about martial arts choreography is there’s gotta be pauses. You can’t just have a flurry of things.

In traditional kung-fu movies, the pause is a moment when you cut to a close-up of them looking at each other or getting ready or whatever. In John Wick, that’s where the gun comes into it. So, if they’re devising a fight scene and they know that this guy has nothing to his hands for X amount of time, that’s where they put in a reload or where they put in a shoot. They build from the martial arts up. So, they start with that and then the gun becomes a piece to put into pauses. They build the rhythm around that.

It’s not composing music, it’s arranging music, and finding how those overlaps work. That’s also what we do in games. Everything in the game is designed to put you in a position where it might lead in five different directions. Reloading a gun takes a while, so you don’t do it in the middle of a gunfight. Doing a takedown makes you move, which might put you in a different position than when you started. So, it’s about always trying to mix it up, but to also hit a tempo and a rhythm. The guns are already a part of that. Picking up guns is also a part of that, and shooting. It’s all about trying to make that dance. Learning, looking at the movies, looking at how those events play out, and kind of reverse engineering how you build sets of rules and simulation and the kind of detail that leads the player to play in that way.

Nerdist: John Wick Hex makes me think of a game like Mario Maker, to a degree. You’ve created such a robust toolset here Are there any plans to have the potential for user-generated content down the line?

Mike Bithell: I don’t think we’re going to do that. But you know, maybe there will be ways to be expressive with this.

Nerdist: All I’m saying is this game looks like it has a lot of replay value.

Mike Bithell: It’s cool that you say that. It’s funny; the most complimentary thing that was said to me was [when] the stunt coordinator said to me—and he was half kidding, but he was like, “Can we get a god mode version of this and use it as a toy to start figuring out how we could schedule up a fight scene?” He’s like, “You’ve made a fight choreography toolkit.”

Nerdist: What’s one of the biggest takeaways you got from someone like Chad Stahelski that affected how you approached the design of the game?

Mike Bithell: I think the biggest one from Chad was his sense of geography. The first time I was showing them to him, we had a very rough test level we were using to kind of prototype it. Just a few office rooms and a big warehouse. The office rooms at the start were really fun and interesting, but then the massive warehouse was really boring because the game wasn’t fun with long distance firing. The night before I was meant to show it to Chad, I was like, “This isn’t good enough.” I was just filling the warehouse with boxes and things just to kind of breakup the space. Like columns and pillars and stuff.

Then I showed it to Chad and he was like, “That stuff at the start’s okay, but warehouse, its ridiculous. It doesn’t feel good at all.” I’m like, “Yeah, man, I’ll come back to this because we’re trying to simulate the game and simulate the movies. But something’s wrong, because it’s really, really small- and medium-sized spaces, but big spaces sucks.” And he’s like, “No, that’s how the film was. There’s no big spaces in the John Wick universe.”

They genuinely, when they were designing the geography of scenes, they used children’s maze books to work out winding through tight spaces. They’ll put things in spaces and block things off because John Wick‘s fight style only works in tight spaces. It was actually part of the logic, I think, behind why that fight style is the way it is, specifically because the first movie was made on such a tight budget. They had to use smaller sets. You couldn’t have John do Keanu Reeves’ Matrix s***. You had to keep things tight and have him move relatively slowly, in terms of his progression through big spaces.

But that tightness, that constraint, that’s why when you’re playing, there’s lots of corners and nooks and crannies. That’s a massive part of what makes a John Wick fight scene cool.

John Wick Hex does not yet have a release date, but you can bet your last mysterious gold coin that we’re going to be keeping an eye on it.

Images: Bithell Games/Good Shepherd Entertainment

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At the halfway point of the year, there are two clear and obvious winners of 2019 so far. The first is the MCU. Between Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, the studio has made roughly 70 kazillion dollars at the global box office. The other is beloved international treasure and all around wonderful human being Keanu Reeves. With John Wick 3, Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4, the announcement of Bill & Ted 3, and the trailer for Cyberpunk, it’s Keanu’s world and we’re just lucky to walk on its sacred ground.

But what would they each be capable of if Keanu and the MCU came together? Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige recently told Comicbook.com he’s been trying to make that exact dream scenario happen for years. “We talk to him for almost every film we make,” Feige said. “I don’t know when, if, or ever he’ll join the MCU, but we very much want to figure out the right way to do it.”

A couple of things: 1) YES. We beseech thee, Odin the All Father to please make this happen. 2) Refer to #1. But forget a single future role. What if Keanu Reeves played every role in the franchise? He could do it too. Here’s Keanu as some of our favorite Marvel characters, as expressed in GIFs (all via GIPHY). Think of it as the KeanCU.

Ultron

Loki

Captain America (Who Can Do This All Day)

Doctor Strange

Early Thor

Thor with His Friend Rocket

Black Widow

Groot

Bucky Barnes

Captain Marvel

Iron Man

And of course, because he has INCREDIBLE range, Keanu as….

Goose

That last one definitely counts, especially because after adding Keanu Reeves to the MCU the only way to make it even better would be to cast more adorable animals in the franchise.

But someone should really make sure Marvel’s villains know what happens if you harm one of Keanu Reeve’s pets.

Featured Image: Summit Entertainment/Marvel

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Keanu Reeves joining Cyberpunk 2077 was E3’s biggest surprise. But who is Johnny Silverhand and what dark secrets is he harboring? Jessica Chobot breaks it down on Nerdist News Edition.

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Keanu Reeves made a surprise appearance at E3 over the weekend, where it was revealed he’s going to play a major role in CD Projekt Red’s upcoming Cyberpunk 2077. Have we hit peak Keanu? Jessica recounts his most excellent achievements in today’s Nerdist News!

What’s your favorite Keanu moment? Let us know in the comments!

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After cleaning up the box office this past weekend with  John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the producers behind the Keanu Reeves starring action franchise have wasted no time in announcing a fourth chapter. Lionsgate has officially made the announcement that it has just scheduled John Wick 4 for a May 21, 2021 release. The studio let fans learn the news in the most John Wick way possible, via a text message that simply read “You have served. You will be of service. John Wick: Chapter 4 is coming – May 21, 2021.”

Given the way the third movie ended (no spoilers, but it does not wrap everything up in a bow), a fourth movie was inevitable. Director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad are expected to return to the series they created as well. It’s rather amazing how much story and drama they’ve been able to milk out of what started out as a simple revenge story, about a retired hitman seeking retribution for the death of his beloved puppy. The first movie had a budget of only $20 million dollars, but went on to make double its budget. The second film performed even better, and the third one is currently cleaning up. It was also the first movie to knock Avengers: Endgame off the top spot at the box office.

Not only is a fourth John Wick movie on its way, but it was also recently announced that a spin-off television series is forthcoming. This one is all about the fictional world of the assassins and their complex hierarchy developed in the films. Based on the hotel that acts as a safe zone for these hitmen known as the Continental, this new series is set to start shooting sometime this year for a debut on the Starz Network. Keanu Reeves is expected to be involved in some capacity as well. One thing is for sure; this franchise has emerged from humble beginnings to become an iconic series in a very short time.

Images: Lionsgate

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Keanu Reeves returns as everyone’s favorite dog person/assassin in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. But how will they outdo themselves this time? We sat down with Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, and the stars of John Wick to talk all about how they made the most action-packed entry in the franchise.

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Join us in a brand new, most excellent Nerdist Remix where Bill & Ted must set out on a harrowing journey… forward in time where they’ll need to help FUTURE Ted who not only has become the world’s greatest assassin but has also found himself in quite a lethal conundrum! What does this mean for the Wyld Stallyns? At what lengths is Future Ted willing to go to escape this bogus fate that has befallen him? Check out this totally paradoxical Nerdist Remix to find out!

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We’re not saying it’s possible for us to be more excited to see a Keanu Reeves’ character on the big screen this year more than John Wick, we’re just saying his character in Toy Story 4 at least has us asking the question, especially after the newest commercial for the animated film introduces us to Canada’s greatest stuntman and popular ’70s toy, Duke Caboom. He’s an action figure who can’t exactly deliver on the “action” part, but he sure can pose.

This delightful ad is our best look yet at the new Reeves-voiced toy. “Riding his powerful Caboom stunt-cycle, Duke is always prepared to show off his stunt poses with confidence and swagger,” but that’s about all he can do. As Woody finds out soon after after meeting him, “Duke has an Achilles heel: he has never been able to do the awesome stunts advertised in his own toy commercial,” and “for years, Duke has been sitting in an antique store, constantly reliving the failures of his tragic past.”

We know Keanu Reeves lived in Toronto as a kid, which is why we assume that after hockey and Alanis Morissette he’s the country’s export, so having him voice a famous Canadian stuntman is a fantastic choice on its own. But hearing him play a super silly toy full of false bravado and doubt is genuinely inspired. Despite being one of the stars of Bill & Ted, somehow Reeves’ comedic sensibilities have always been underappreciated.

So are we more excited to see Duke Caboom and his inability to do cool stunts this year more than we are the ultimate action hero John Wick? Probably not, but it’s pretty revealing we’re even thinking about it

But if we find out Duke also loves dogs all bets are off.

Toy Story 4 leaps into theaters on June 20.

Featured Image: Disney Pixar

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Keanu Reeves is getting his very own film festival. It will celebrate four decades of his big screen career, including two of his most iconic roles, John Wick and Ted “Theodore” Logan III.

We don’t know what the greatest word in the English language was before, but we know what it is now: “KeanuCon.” Late in April, fans of the action star will come together to honor his long career, thanks to a first-of-its-kind film festival dedicated entirely to a man who made the word “whoa” iconic.

The event is being put together by Matchbox Cineclub, “an independent exhibitor for cineoutcasts, orphans and outliers,” at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow, Scotland (which we learned about at Little White Lies) for two days, on the weekend of April 27 and 28.

The slate will feature a wide range of his Reeves’ movies, starting with 1985’s One Step Away. Included are some of his most famous films, like both Bill & Ted movies, Constantine, and Speed, as well as some deeper cuts from his career, like Permanent Record. The festival will end with his most recent film he co-starred in with Winona Ryder, Destination Wedding. (Unfortunately, Bram Stoker’s Dracula will not be screened.)

The question isn’t whether we’d want to attend KeanuCon (just typing that phrase feels good); the question is why haven’t we had one before. It’s like, whoa, this is a great idea, and the best word ever.

You can purchase your tickets through Matchbox Cineclub’s website, and you can find the full two-day lineup of Keanu movies (which sadly also does not include Point Break) and special events* listed below.

One Step Away (Robert Fortier, 1985)
Permanent Record (Marisa Silver, 1988)
My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)
Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994)
The Matrix (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 1999)
John Wick (Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, 2014)
Man of Tai Chi (Keanu Reeves, 2013)
Constantine (Francis Lawrence, 2005)
Challenge Death with Dice Roll Cafe*
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Stephen Herek, 1989)
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (Peter Hewitt, 1991)
Wyld Stallyns Live*
Destination Wedding (Victor Levin, 2019)

Images: Summit Entertainment, Matchbox Coneclub/Vero Navarro

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What does it take to make us believe that John Wick might not survive? Almost every assassin in the world trying to claim the massive bounty on his head, like they are in the latest trailer for his next chapter. Fortunately for him he still has some powerful new friends, both old and new, to help him beat the impossible odds.

The newest trailer for Jon Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is here, and to paraphrase the immortal words of Barney Gumble, “Just hook it to our veins!” The latest installment in the franchise looks like it will be the most insane one yet. It’s basically a hot new nightclub Stefon would tell us about, because it has everything: a chase through city streets on horseback, katana-wielding ninjas on motorcycles, a $14 million bounty, a shadowy international assassin’s guild known as the High Table, throwing knives into your enemy’s chest, and Halle Berry.

“All of this for what? Because of a puppy?”
“It wasn’t just a puppy.”

Is it weird to feel like a movie franchise truly loves and understands us? Because that’s what that exchange makes us think.

As for John Wick himself, we wouldn’t count him out even if he didn’t have friends to help him, but since we never want to see grieving widow Keanu Reeves come to harm, we’re glad he has some allies left. However, we are sorry to tell him, Ian McShane, and Laurence Fishburne that none of them can claim to be the coolest person in the franchise now that Halle Berry is here.

While this movie does look to have everything, we hope one things is missing: any dogs being harmed. Yeah, this is all over a puppy. Imagine what John Wick would do if someone hurt another one.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which also stars Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Saïd Taghmaoui, Jerome Flynn, Jason Mantzoukas, Tobias Segal, Boban Marjanovic, and Anjelica Huston, comes to theaters this spring on May 17.

Featured Image: Lionsgate

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We have some most excellent news to share with you: Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves have announced they will begin shooting Bill & Ted 3 this summer. And the would-be rock ‘n’ roll saviors will have a lot to answer for after never actually making the music that saves the world.

Rumblings of a third film in the franchise have been happening for a few years, and earlier this year those reports turned into a roar. Now the millions of people who only want to be excellent to each other can once again sing in unison about their dream for a better future, because life just got a lot less bogus after Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves announced in a video they expect to start filming the next Bill & Ted movie, titled Bill & Ted Face the Music, this summer.

In a short video in front of the Hollywood Bowl, the pair, who last rocked out together as the well-meaning, musically inept goofballs in 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, thanked fans for making the much-hoped for film a reality. The video ends with a note about the release date; Face the Music will arrive to theaters on August 21, 2020.

Writer Ed Solomon previously said the long rumored Bill & Ted Face the Music will find the Wyld Stallyns dealing with the fact they never actually got around to making their Earth-saving, world peace-creating music that was promised at the end of the second film. This new film will see the middle-aged pair going back in time to deal with their younger selves.

In fairness to the Stallyns, it always feels like you have plenty of time to do everything you need to accomplish when you have a time machine . And with a couple of actual princesses on your arms, we imagine it’s not always easy to keep focused on heading to the recording studio to save mankind.

No matter what their excuse though, getting another Bill & Ted is definitely most excellent.

Featured Image: Orion Pictures

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By now you would think everyone would know not to mess with John Wick, but in the first trailer for the next film in the franchise everyone wants a piece of him. And while being declared “excommunicado” means the ultimate battle for survival for the best assassin in the world, it also means a whole lot of danger for everyone else, and a whole lot of awesome for moviegoers.The first look at John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (in Latin, parabellum means “prepare for war”) offers up everything fans have come to expect from the series, like gorgeous sets, crazy action sequences, John Wick being the world’s coolest bad ass, and of course, a cute doggo. But we’ve also got some things we didn’t even realize we needed but now can’t imagine living without. Once you’ve seen John Wick riding a horse and kicking his enemies, and you’ve watched him be chased by a katana-wielding gang of killers, you realize life was incomplete before.

“Do you expect him to make it out?”“A $14 million bounty on his head, and everyone in the city wants a piece of it? I’d say the odds are about even.”JUST HOOK IT TO MY VEINS!

Like past John Wick movies, the film has a killer cast. Joining Keanu Reeves again are Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, and Ian McShane. This time they’ll also be joined by Anjelica Huston and Halle Berry, who looks to be playing one of the few friends John Wick has left.

At least we hope she’ll be playing his friend. He might be excommunicado, but he’s still John Wick. Even if everyone else is going to war with him that doesn’t mean you should.

Featured Image: Lionsgate

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When last we saw John Wick on the big screen, he was hightailing it out of New York City with a contract on his head, and things were looking pretty darn bleak for everyone’s favorite retired hitman/dog lover. Fans have been salivating for a continuation of the story. Luckily, Entertainment Weekly shared the first images from the highly anticipated John Wick: Chapter 3; they show the titular assassin (Keanu Reeves) on the run and meeting up with an old friend, played by Halle Berry. And she, like John, is apparently also has a fondness for our canine friends.We like her already.

Keanu Reeves is on the run in John Wick: Chapter 3 first-look photos https://t.co/tLq1jpWBdu pic.twitter.com/tAZzCXUbWL

— viralcrusher (@viralcrusher) December 19, 2018

In this continuation, John meets his old friend Sofia (Berry) in the Middle East, and just as John’s dearly departed dog was the symbol of his lost relationship, her dogs are a link to her own lost love. The film’s director Chad Stahelski told EW, “John’s puppy was symbolic of his wife, Halle’s two dogs are symbolic of someone she’s lost.” The two dogs in question are a pair of Belgian Malinois, and you just know they’re going to figure into the action somehow. We’re calling it now: they will be our favorite characters.

guess what? I’m already horny for JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3. pic.twitter.com/JrG0oE9GMq

— Ryan McCabe (@ryanmccabe) December 19, 2018

This latest film will also give us an origin story of sorts for John Wick, presumably in flashbacks, and we’ll be meeting one of the people responsible for shaping him and turning him into the world’s most badass hitman, played by screen icon Anjelica Huston. There will also be lots of broody shots of Keanu Reeves in the rain, and we are totally here for it.John Wick: Chapter 3 hits theaters on May 17, 2019.

Images: Lionsgate

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Ever since it was announced that Keanu Reeves would be bringing his incredibly handsome voice to the world of Toy Story 4 we’ve been waiting for more info about his mystery character. And on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon Buzz Lightyear himself teased a little bit about Reeve’s enigmatic new addition, as well as talking about the emotional beats of the upcoming sequel.

Though many of us struggled with the emotional rollercoaster that was Toy Story 3 Allen hinted that the new movie would be leaning even further into the poignant psychological explorations that the series has been known for. “The last scene of that movie was… I couldn’t even get through it, and I thought there were pages after it. And I read it and I had to turn around from looking at it in the studio, because it was so emotional.” Allen shared.Are you excited to see (hear) Reeves take on his first voice acting role? Just happy that we’re getting another Toy Story? Jump in the comments and let us know!

Images: Summit Entertainment, Disney/Pixar

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Everyone’s favorite dog-avenging, Continental rules-ignoring, grudge-holding assassin with a face like Ted “Theodore” Logan is finally taking form in plastic. Licensors may have steered clear of the first John Wick due to the stomach-churning human-on-canine violence, but since the sequel doesn’t repeat that unpleasant deed, it’s time for toys, and specifically the kind that are Hot.

Packed with a Blood Oath medallion, multiple guns, various hands, gold coins, and a catacombs-themed backdrop, Hot Toys‘ John Wick comes loaded for business, and looking like he’s done some already. The pore-perfect Keanu Reeves head sculpt already sports some cuts and blood from the movie’s opening sequence—yeah, we’re thinking he’s back! (And that he didn’t pack a razor.) Sadly, no dog figure is included.

Hot Toys isn’t the only company to commemorate John Wick in plastic; Japanese company MAFEX and the U.S.-based Diamond Select Toys have their own John Wicks headed to retail later this year and next. You shouldn’t worry about how fast they’ll arrive, because Baba Yaga always finds those who need to be found.

As a bonus, since John Wick is basically just Keanu Reeves in a generic suit, you can use this figure for any of his roles you like. Been wanting a Lake House figure for years? This kinda counts! And if Bill & Ted 3 really happens, prepare yourself with a fully armed version.

Are you interested in a fine John Wick replica? Tell us in comments.

Images: Hot Toys

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Thanks to the John Wick movies, Keanu Reeves is currently enjoying a resurgent career as an action star. But not every role taken by Reeves can be as deadly or as capable as Mr. Wick. In the upcoming thriller, Siberia, Reeves plays Lucas Hill, a diamond merchant who has traveled to Russia in order to close a deal with Boris Volkov (Pasha D. Lychnikoff); a man who may be a powerful figure in the local criminal underworld. If Lucas can’t deliver on his promises than he may not make it out alive. In the trailer below, Lucas gets some very bad news about his rare blue diamonds, and it could cost him everything.

It seems clear that Lucas didn’t initially intend to scam Volkov, but his friends left him high and dry with high quality fake diamonds that he needs to pass off as the real thing. Fleeing the country may seem like a good option, but Lucas has also formed a romantic relationship with Katya (Ana Ularu), the owner of a local cafe. If Lucas runs, Volkov and his men will almost certainly kill Katya before pursuing him as well. The trailer teases Lucas’ decision to stay and fight for his life, but he appears to be badly outmatched from the start.

Molly Ringwald, Rafael Petardi, and Aleks Paunovic round out the cast of Siberia; which was directed by Matthew Ross. It will be released on Friday, July 13.

What do you think about the new trailer for Siberia? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Saban Films

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John Wick: Chapter 3 is just a year away from hitting theaters, and according to Deadline, the film is including two formidable women to their cast of actors. Both Halle Berry and Anjelica Huston are joining the cast of Lionsgate’s latest (and possibly final?) installment of their hit contract killers franchise. Berry and Huston will be joining the returning Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick, who are all returning for the Chad Stahelski-directed film.

So who are these actors going to be playing? So far, we only have their character names as clues. Halle Berry will be playing a character named “Sofia.” The details around Berry’s character are being kept under wraps, but it is being reported that she is not going to be a villain in the film. Halle Berry announced her involvement with John Wick: Chapter 3 with the following Instagram post:

It’s a date. 5.17.19

A post shared by Halle Berry (@halleberry) on May 21, 2018 at 8:59am PDT

Angelica Huston will be playing someone known as  “The Director,” which possibly suggest someone who is the head of the criminal High Table organization of contract killers. Also joining the film’s cast as part of the shadowy world of the contract killers are Orange Is the New Black’s Asia Kate Dillon as “The Adjudicator” of the High Table; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Mark Dacascos as an assassin code-named “Zero;” and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Jason Mantzoukas as someone called the “Tick Tock Man.”

This latest installment finds John Wick on the run with a $14 million price tag on his head, and an army of bounty-hunting killers hot on his trail. After killing a member of the shadowy international assassin’s guild the High Table in Chapter 2, John Wick is now excommunicado.  But the world’s most ruthless hit men and women await his every turn. John Wick: Chapter 3 is set to debut in theaters worldwide on May 17, 2019 release.

Are you as excited as we are to see these two legendary actresses join the world of Wick? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: Twentieth Century Fox / NBC Universal

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Easter eggs are buried in Disney films. Sometimes they’re references to other Disney movies, like when Flynn Rider and Rapunzel from Tangled showed up to the Arendelle party in Frozen or like when Lady and the Tramp appeared in the streets in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. But sometimes the Easter eggs are a nod to the non-fictional world, and Zootopia has a reference to a photo that sparked a hilarious meme: Sad Keanu (which started with a photo of Keanu enjoying a sandwich by himself on a bench and looking like the weight of the world is on his shoulders).

In ‘Zootopia’ (2016) there’s a brief shot of a conspiracy wall and one of pictures is of a Sad Keanu wolf. from r/MovieDetails

Zootopia’s been out since 2016, so this isn’t news, but it is new to me thanks to redditor Hdalby33. You can spot a photo of a sad-looking wolf sitting on a bench on the conspiracy board the police department is using in their attempt to figure out who’s responsible for multiple predators going missing. The wolf is posed just like Keanu Reeves’ Sad Keanu; he has a cup by his feet, a snack in his hand.  The board is only on screen briefly, but I really need to look for this next time I watch the movie.What’s the best pun name you can come up with for a Keanu Reeves animal? What’s your favorite Easter egg in a Disney movie?

Featured Image: Disney

Amy Ratcliffe is the Managing Editor for Nerdist. Follow her on Twitter and keep up with her Disney food adventures on Instagram.

More Easter eggs to uncover!

• Nedry’s Jurassic Park outfits are Goonies Easter eggs.
• A quality Golden Girls Easter egg in Deadpool 2.
• The many references in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.

[brightcove video_id=”5360618223001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”rJs2ZD8x”]

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There has long been talk of a sequel to the beloved Bill & Ted movies of the late ’80s and early ’90s. It’s been 29 years since the original flick introduced the world to the pair of sweet but dimwitted time-traveling slackers who just happened to wind up becoming the saviors of the future and the universe, and 27 since the arguably superior sequel Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. But we may not have to wait too much longer to see Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves return to the big screen. Deadline reports that the pair is officially on board to return for Bill & Ted Face the Music, with Galaxy Quest‘s Dean Parisot set to direct.

In a January interview with Digital Spy, Bill & Ted writer Ed Solomon opened up about the state of the long-gestating third entry. One of the most exciting things about Bill & Ted Face the Music has always been that we’ll see the titular duo as middle aged family men, portrayed once again by Winter and Reeves. Talking about the script that he’s been working on with Chris Matheson, Solomon finally gave some insight into what the story might look like.

It appears that the duo will go back in time and interact with their younger selves, the iconic Circle K will still play a large part, and the film will even use footage from the original ’89 movie! “There’s actually a scene–one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie–where middle-aged, 50-year-old Bill and Ted return to the Circle K and see their teen selves and Rufus, and actually interact with their teenage selves, played by their actual teenage selves,” Solomon told Digital Spy.

Although George Carlin, legendary comedian and the actor who played Bill and Ted’s mentor Rufus, passed away 10 years ago, he was such a large part of the original that the team is really interested in keeping his legacy alive. “There’s also a character in the movie named Kelly, which is George’s daughter’s name, who has a very significant role in the journey,” Solomon said.

Are you excited for a potential Bill & Ted sequel? Can’t wait to see Alex Winter rocking a crop top again? Just wanna see the Wyld Stallyns reunited? Let us know in the comments!

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They are Bill S. Preston, Esquire, and Ted “Theodore” Logan, and together they are Wyld Stallyns! As foretold in the two Bill & Ted movies, everyone’s favorite pair of time-traveling dimwits are destined to change the world with their music. But they haven’t done it yet, and it’s been 26 years since the last sequel. Bogus! But thanks to the success of John Wick 2, Keanu Reeves is riding another Hollywood comeback. On today’s Nerdist News, we’ll tell you what that means for a potential Bill & Ted 3!Join host, and one of the princesses from the distant past, Jessica Chobot, as she takes a look at the latest update on the long-awaited Bill & Ted sequel, straight from Reeves himself! While promoting John Wick 2 on The Graham Norton Show, Reeves said that a script has already been written, and it would follow up on the fact that Bill and Ted still haven’t lived up to their potential.”Basically, they’re supposed to write a song to save the world and they haven’t done that,” related Reeves. “The pressure of having to save the world, their marriages are falling apart, their kids are kind of mad at them, and then someone comes from the future and tells them if they don’t write the song it’s just not the world, it’s the universe. So they have to save the universe because time is breaking apart”Sadly, Bill and Ted’s mentor, Rufus, can’t be the one to come back from the future (because the great George Carlin passed away years ago), but we’re still hoping to see William Sadler return as the Grim Reaper!What do you think about the possible continuation of Bill & Ted? Play some wicked air guitar and then let’s discuss in the comment section below!

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Fandom can be a fickle thing. We are a diehard, deeply passionate group of people who have very strong feelings about the things that we love. After seeing 2014’s action-packed revenge thriller John Wick, I and many others fell in love with the Keanu Reeves-starring movie about a taciturn hitman who murders everyone and their mother after armed goons steal his car and kill the puppy his recently deceased wife gave him as a present. Naturally, when they announced John Wick: Chapter 2 was on the way, we were excited but apprehensive. What if it wasn’t as good? What if they messed it up? What if they killed twice as many puppies this time around? Well, as it turns out, the film is as good, if not better than the original. And it also turns out that the cast felt this immense pressure too, as I learned when I sat down with Keanu Reeves, Common, and Ruby Rose at a recent press day in Los Angeles.

The film isn’t just momentous for being John Wick’s return to the big screen; it also marks an auspicious reunion of The Matrix co-stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. While they don’t have the same Neo/Morpheus relationship this time around, seeing the two on screen together again was electrifying. Hear what Reeves had to say about their reunion:[brightcove video_id=”5308646471001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”2bfa565b-5412-4cfd-9211-6269880b8a5e”]

John Wick: Chapter 2 opens on Friday, February 10.

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

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