Rejoice! JOHN WICK 2 Is Really Actually Happening!

Some days, the world is a glorious place.  Today is one of those days.

John Wick is easily one of the greatest pure action movies of the past decade, and while all the cool kids instantly agreed that this was something special, I kind of thought that it wasn't quite financially successful enough to spawn the franchise that it deserved.  But fear not!  The fine folks at Lionsgate have seen fit to get the band back together, re-signing Keanu Reeves, directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad for John Wick 2 which literally cannot get here fast enough.

My love of John Wick is real and true.  Not only am I overly fond of Keanu Reeves, but I appreciate any action movie that goes out of its way to stage impressive and exciting action sequences and purposefully shoots them in such a way as to distinguish the badassery of the stunt team.  That what happens when you hire stunt coordinators as directors and we're all the better for it.  I also maintain that the brutal puppy death that kicks off the film is one of the best parts, though I understand why people have some serious trouble with it.  There's no way they kill another dog in the sequel, so you really have no excuse not to get for this one.

If we're REALLY lucky, we'll also get that rumored Hotel Continental spin-off.  I'm ALL ABOUT the continuing adventures of Ian McShane's ascot and Lance Reddick's accent.

Keanu Reeves Will Avenge This Puppy In The JOHN WICK Trailer

Keanu Reeves is that special breed of actor who does not have a whole lot of range, but who shines like a supernova when given the right role.  If we're lucky, John Wick might be just that kind of role.

Reeves plays a former hitman in search of bloody vengeance after Theon Greyjoy and his Russian mafia friends steal his Mustang and murder his beagle, seemingly by punching it to death.  I was supposed to be a beagle.  I like to think that Keanu Reeves would avenge me too.

Watching Reeves kill dozens of people over a dead dog sounds AMAZING, but when you through in Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, Adrianne Palicki, John Leguizamo and Lance Reddick's Accent, well I'm positively intrigued.  This trailer gets bonus points for turning "Wick" into "Wicked," which I chose to interpret not as an adjective one might use to describe a witch, but as the verbal form of the name Wick.  I now expect Reeves to glower at a room full of goons at some point and yell, "Prepare to get Wicked!"

Director Chad Stahelski is a prolific stunt guy, having worked on the Matrix films, Serenity and Catching Fire, for which he also served as second unit director.  John Wick is his directorial debut and I hear the flick is a preposterous amount of fun.  I really wish I could see it at Fantastic Fest next week.  I imagine it'll play like gangbusters down in Austin.

Sidenote: Can we all just agree to stop titling movies with generic dude names?  How have studio marketing departments not figured this out yet?