Working on John Wick: Chapter 4 was so exhausting for Hollywood star Keanu Reeves that he wanted his titular character to be "definitively killed at the end of this movie", franchise producer Basil Iwanyk has revealed.

Reeves reprised his role of the assassin who returns to the world he had left behind to avenge the murder of a pup, a gift from his late wife in the fourth chapter of the action film series directed by Chad Stahelski. It was released in March.

In an interview with Collider, Iwanyk revealed the actor became a "shell of himself" as the shooting process neared its completion.

Reeves is exhausted after making these films, as he puts his body and soul into the stunts and the performance. By the time they were making Chapter 4, he had reached his limit, and Iwanyk revealed that Reeves was pleading for Wick to be “definitively” killed off at the end of the film so that he could finally rest. But they couldn’t let go of Wick completely, so they left a small chance for him to survive.

“By the end, he’s always like, ‘I can’t do this again,’ and we agree with him. The guy is just a shell of himself because he just goes off and goes for it. He was like, ‘I wanna be definitively killed at the end of this movie.’ We were like, ‘You know, we’ll leave a 10% little opening.’”

In May, it was revealed John Wick 5 is in the early stages of development. Lionsgate chairman Joe Drake revealed at the time that a fifth movie was already in the works, along with a host of other projects at the production studio.