John Wick is anti-hero you have empathy for. There’s more to him than being a hitman. If you’ve followed the series, you’ll know he lost his wife to cancer and religiously carries his dog in tow (albeit sometimes having to give him up). Yet while the viewer can sympathize with Keanu Reeves’ character, there’s a dangerous multi-faceted layer that also gets him into mischief.
“There is a part of John Wick that doesn’t care about the consequences in a way because he’ll deal with it when he deals with it,” Keanu said on a rainy Friday afternoon inside New York’s Four Seasons. “But there is something about this feeling or why he’s doing it—whether it’s for revenge or fighting for his life. It’s personal. John Wick kind of gets John in trouble. I guess we all kind of have sides of ourselves that get us in trouble.”
Reeves sat with VIBE inside the downtown hotel to examine the beloved gunman and the mayhem he causes for the forthcoming John Wick: Chapter 3–Parabellum. (out Friday, May 17)
Amid the trouble, this time around director and former stunt man Chad Stahelski added The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) to hold Wick accountable for killing a member of the high table at the Continental Hotel. With a $14 million bounty on his head, Wick must trek from New York to the desert in the Middle East and North Africa. In the thriller, Dillon speaks in direct monotone sentences with urgency to correct those responsible for any wrongdoing.
Off camera, Dillon, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them, believes in social justice issues affecting black queer people.
“I am a very vocal activist for black lives matter, black trans lives matter, and also for representation and visibility of non-binary and trans identities both on screen but in the media in general,” Dillon says.
Starring alongside Keanu is Sophia, played by Halle Berry, who offers John help in the midst of grappling with her own demons that come from losing her daughter. Underneath it all, she’s an emotionally troubled woman who has to “kill something she loves” in order to survive. Halle jokes that she’s had to kill a couple of her tumultuous romantic relationships in the past in efforts to keep going.
VIBE sat with the cast to discuss the intricacies of plot, character, and action found in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Watch the interviews below.