John Wick Would Be Restoring Old Books If People Didn't Keep Trying To Kill Him
John Wick loves two things: his wife and his dog. And it turns out, book-binding. The titular assassin of the action franchise starring Keanu Reeves has an unexpected hobby that unfortunately got cut from the first two films. But it comes back in an unexpected way in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
John Wick escaped the assassin world once, but in the past three John Wick movies, has found himself pulled further and further back into the blood-soaked, hyperviolent world. Here, he's a legend, a myth — albeit one that everyone is trying to kill. But what was he doing in the years when he wasn't being a legendary assassin? Binding and restoring old leather books, apparently.
In an interview with Uproxx, Reeves revealed that John Wick's hobby was apparently restoring old leather-bound books:
"In the first script they had John Wick described as working with old leather-bound books and book restoration. We filmed it. It's not in the movie, but we filmed it. He had a hobby and a vocation. That's what he did. Best case, yes, his wife had passed, and that's what he had decided to do once he got out after the impossible task, that was his vocation."
The hobby was supposed to be shown in the first 2014 film, likely in the scenes when he was living (kind of peacefully) with the adorable puppy that his recently deceased wife had gifted him, but got scrapped in the final cut. It's too bad we didn't get to see it, because it would have been a nice, human look at John Wick before he goes on a murdering rampage — although getting revenge for a dog is human enough.
But the hobby returns in a surprising way in the very good John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Early in the film, a significant sequence takes place at the Rose Main Reading Room of the Fifth Avenue New York Public Library, where John Wick visits to find a very specific book. He ends up using said book to beat up a dude, but you can imagine that this book was one of Wick's projects — or he just really likes Russian literature. Either way, now you know one of the few ways to get close to John Wick's heart: dogs, his wife, and books. All the things a man needs to live.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum opens in theaters on May 17, 2019.
After gunning down a member of the High Table — the shadowy international assassin's guild — legendary hit man John Wick finds himself stripped of the organization's protective services. Now stuck with a $14 million bounty on his head, Wick must fight his way through the streets of New York as he becomes the target of the world's most ruthless killers.