Keanu Reeves and his John Wick director Chad Stahelski tried “really hard” to outdo themselves with the action in John Wick: Chapter 4.

With each instalment in the high-octane assassin franchise, the action sequences get bigger, bolder and more explosive, and the latest chapter, clocking in at almost three hours, features more setpieces than ever before.

When asked by Cover Media how he and Stahelski keep outdoing what they’ve already done in previous John Wick films, Reeves replied, “We’re trying really hard, we love action. Hopefully, people like it ’cause we’re just cooking it up.”

However, in a separate conversation, the stuntman-turned-filmmaker insisted the action sequences improve every time because he, Reeves, and the John Wick team get “better” with each movie.

“Honestly, you don’t even really try (topping what came before), you just try to get better at your job,” he told the outlet. “We all grow up, right, we all experience life in different ways, I think it’s the time (away)… you know the famous musical thing, ‘It’s not the notes, it’s the space in between notes.’ It’s the job and we take it very professionally but it’s that time in between when you really have to do the work and expand your own knowledge. I get better, Keanu gets better, the crew gets better, the movie gets better.”

Stahelski also explained that devising the action setpieces for each film is “a huge process” involving him and Reeves coming up with lots of initial ideas.

“It starts with one of us with an idea, we write it out with a stunt team and storyboard, we’ll rehearse, sometimes the ideas come to fruition, sometimes like, ‘Oh my God, that was a horrible idea, throw it away.’ We have a lot,” he shared.

John Wick: Chapter 4, also starring Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, and Donnie Yen, is in cinemas from 24 March.

© Cover Media