Keanu Reeves comes out of retirement to find and kill the man responsible for murdering his dog in John Wick 2014. Since then, Reeves has appeared in three more installments in the franchise, which is currently planning a TV series and a spin-off. The franchise was lauded for launching a character without an origin story and still fleshing out interesting plotlines.
An assassin known for his merciless kills, John Wick lets go of one of the villain’s team members in the first movie. The short yet unexpected cameo of a nightclub bouncer was played by none other than Kevin Nash, the two-time WWE Hall of Famer.
Kevin Nash’s Cameo Scene With Keanu Reeves In John Wick
While hunting Iosef Tarasov, the man who killed his dog, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick heads to a nightclub where Iosef and his friends are hanging out. Kevin Nash appears as the bouncer at that nightclub. John Wick sneaks up behind the bouncer, points a gun to the back of his head, and addresses him by name, Francis.
The duo began speaking in Russian with John Wick telling Francis that he has lost weight, to which Francis responds, “Over sixty pounds”. Following this exchange, John Wick says to the bouncer, “Why don’t you take the night off” and lets him go. Some fans speculated that Francis might be John Wick’s old friend from before his retirement and that’s why he spared the bouncer after having small talk with him.
But this speculation proved to be far from the actual reason, which was revealed by Kevin Nash himself. Kevin Nash, a retired professional wrestler, has fans across the country and has won 20 major championships. Fans of the wrestler were excited to see him appear in John Wick even if it lasted only a few seconds.
Why Did Keanu Reeves Spare Kevin Nash In John Wick?
John Wick’s reputation was to wipe off all his villains without hesitation, but he lets go of Kevin Nash’s bouncer though he was on the opposite team. Nash later in an interview at Big Texas ComicCon in 2019 explained that Keanu Reeves’ character let the bouncer go not because they were old friends but because the bouncer helped him in that particular scene.
The seemingly friendly exchange between the characters, where Francis mentions his weight loss, was actually them speaking in code language. John Wick indirectly asks the bouncer how many are there in the nightclub to which Francis replies over 60. Kevin Nash remarked that the weight loss reference doesn’t make logical sense as no person could lose 60 pounds of weight.
This little trivia came as a surprise to many fans. The latest movie in the beloved franchise, John Wick: Chapter 4, collected over $432M becoming the top grosser in the franchise and a critical as well as commercial success. All the films from the John Wick series are available for rental on Amazon Prime.
Source: Gen EX Reviews – YouTube
