Keanu Reeves has started his stunt training for John Wick 4 and Matrix 4. Reeves has been the starring actor in both franchises, with The Matrix going all the way back to 1999 and helping the actor become as famous as he has. John Wick came out in 2014, and both franchises have had two sequels already. The Matrix 4 was announced this summer, coming as a surprise to many, while John Wick 4 was confirmed and given a release date earlier this spring.
Reeves's career began in the 1980s, but his first hit was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, which had a sequel and is also getting another entry soon, with Bill and Ted Face the Music set to release in 2020. After that, he played a moody, scenery-devouring Don John in a star-studded cast for Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and then became a household name when The Matrix came out. This is not to ignore the rest of his lengthy filmography, though: Reeves has been in more than 50 feature films and doesn't seem to have ever slowed down, with a role in more than one film a year for almost every year back to 1995 (though he did miss 1998 and 2004 entirely).
That persistent energy to work can be seen in Taran Tactical's Instagram post showing Reeves with a number of stunt trainers as he begins to do stunt training for John Wick 4 and Matrix 4 simultaneously. Taran Butler runs Taran Tactical, and was also the tactical weapons advisor and did stunts for John Wick 2.
Doubling up on stunt training for two movies is a demanding task, but Reeves is no stranger to stunt training, often doing a fair portion of his stunts himself. He does so instead of relying on a stunt double for the safer, but still very demanding, fighting and driving sequences. Further, Reeves can be seen in 2nd Unit: Invisible Action Stars, a documentary about stunt actors, trainers, and coordinators.
There is an advantage for Reeves in training for both films at the same time, which is that he will only have to get into top shape once, with the downside being that he will have many more stunts to train for at the same time since not only are John Wick 4 and Matrix 4 going into production around the same time, they actually both share a March, 21, 2021 release date. With a starring role in two of the biggest action franchises around, Reeves is cementing himself even further as one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood, as well as a genuinely nice guy with an impressive roster of acting roles under his belt.
Source: Taran Tactical (Instagram)
