Keanu Reeves Calls ‘John Wick 2’ a ‘Third-Degree Black Belt,’ Reveals New Plot Details

The only negative aspect of John Wick: Chapter Two is the film’s release date — we’ll have to wait until 2017 to watch Keanu Reeves wipe out a bunch of bad guys and to see what’s up with that new dog he’s been spotted with on set. Reeves isn’t making the wait any easier in his latest interview, where he teases the evolution of his character, the sequel’s new location and Laurence Fishburne’s mysterious role.

John Wick was easily one of the best films of 2014, and the fact that it spawned a sequel is damn near miraculous in this age of superhero and comic book franchises. Chapter Two is near (or at) the top of our list of the most anticipated films of 2017, though we still don’t know much about it aside from new cast members and a promise to further explore the assassin network revealed in the first film’s best sequence.

Reeves spoke with IGN about how Chapter Two will expand the mythology and the universe introduced in John Wick, moving the setting to Rome to further explore the assassin underground:

For us it was just what is the next chapter? What is the continuation of this story? Opening up the world – the underground world. The world behind the world in terms of the assassins. Kind of evolving the action – if the first one was a black belt, then this one is third degree black belt. It’s such a fun project and a great character.

The sequel features some new cast members, like Orange Is the New Black’s Ruby Rose and career bad guy Peter Stormare. But there’s one face that’s not entirely new — Laurence Fishburne, who co-starred with Reeves in The Matrix trilogy. Reeves has nothing but praise for Fishburne, and while he reveals his character’s name, he stops short of saying whether he’s a good guy or a bad one:

Laurence has this fantastic role as a character in the Underworld called The Bowery King. He plays such a great character in the piece and he brings of course humour, intelligence, charisma and fascination – he’s such an incredible actor and it was a pleasure to work with him again.

John Wick: Chapter Two also stars Common, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick and Bridget Moynahan, and hits theaters on February 10, 2017. Instead of staring longingly at that date on your calendar, look at the next several months as an opportunity to re-watch John Wick as much as possible.