Apart from arguably the Fast and/or Furious movies, no current film franchise embraces the ridiculous as much as John Wick. What started out as a simple story about a retired super assassin (played by Keanu Reeves) killing everyone because a guy murdered his adorable puppy has ballooned into a near-parody of world building. By the end of the truly next level Chapter 2, it appeared that all the world, from street musicians to homeless people, were secret assassins ready to off our hero for a sizable fee.
The saga’s third chapter — the wordy and portentously titled John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum — is currently one of roughly ten thousand upcoming movies getting teased at CinemaCon 2019. Lucky journos and fans received a three-to-four minute clip introduced by new-to-the-series co-star Halle Berry, and the main takeaway appears to be this: It has assassin dogs.
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Previous John Wick 3 trailers have briefly shown Berry’s character — a fellow assassin and close friend of Wick’s — hanging with some angry-looking mutts. We’ve even already learned that Berry trained the dogs herself. But truly we had no idea about what these dogs would (or could) be doing.
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https://twitter.com/ScottWamplerBMD/status/1113921927679098880
They showed a clip from #JohnWick3 and Halle Berry’s dogs get in on the brutalism and John Wick has to reload a clip in a standoff that made the whole room explode into applause. #JohnWick is back, baby!! pic.twitter.com/ai3mrKS1qE
— Fandango (@Fandango) April 4, 2019
Lionsgate kickstarts with @DavidKHarbour talking HELLBOY, and then Chad Stahelski & @halleberry introducing a clip from JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM!
Keanu, Halle, and a pair of dogs kill at least 30-40 people in maybe two minutes. Insanely badass, can’t wait! #CinemaCon
— Rohan Patel (@KingPatel7) April 4, 2019
So that’s a lot of deaths-by-dog. This leads to another line of speculation: Are they helping Wick to avenge the puppy death that kickstarted the series?
What if JOHN WICK has been a stealthy prequel series to a PLANET OF THE DOGS franchise where dogs destroy humanity and rule the world? https://t.co/xNQFX3Xhcg
— Matt Singer / mattsinger.bsky.social (@mattsinger) April 4, 2019
We’ll find out when John Wick 3 hits theaters on May 17. Until then, we’ll have to go by the word of those at CinemaCon, like the staff of /Film, who described the ultraviolent clip thusly:
The two of them enter through some catacombs guns blazing, shooting people while the dog does his part to take down henchmen as well. The footage is exactly the kind of over-the-top yet grounded action that we crave from this franchise, and has a welcome addition of showcasing a compelling female character and an attack dog that can do crazy tricks. One highlight of the footage takes place when Sofia is fighting a man in hand-to-hand combat when a gunman from the second story shoots at her. Sofia calls for her dog, who leaps off her back to climb the wall and viciously attack the gunman.
Not since Milla Jovovich battled some zombie dogs with her boots in the first Resident Evil. See y’all in mid-May!
(Via /Film)
