Mark your calendars for May 21st, 2021, as this has now become Keanu Reeves Day. Why, you ask? Well, because The Matrix 4 and John Wick: Chapter 4 are both slated for release then, giving us a double helping of the ageless charm of The Internet’s Boyfriend.
The official announcement of The Matrix 4 in August came as something of a surprise, partly due to the previous installment, 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions, receiving a somewhat lackluster reception, and partly due to it being a decidedly concluding chapter to the trilogy that left little scope for continuation.
Inversely, John Wick: Chapter 4 was an inevitability, on account of the franchise’s growing profitability and the ending of Parabellum that left the saga unfinished and promised to continue raising its stakes. As if this weren’t enough, next year brings us more of Reeves in our local multiplex with another unexpected franchise continuation in the shape of Bill & Ted Face the Music, a follow up to ‘90s time travel comedies Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.
But circling back to May 21st, 2021, and it seems that the internet cannot wait to celebrate, as evidenced by the Tweets below:
I’m still not over the fact that Keanu Reeves has two movies coming out on the same day 😂😂
— Jairus 🎮🥁🤓 (@McFooleryFPS) December 16, 2019
I guess May 21 will officially be Keanu Reeves day.#woah #KeanuReeves #Matrix4 #JohnWick4 #YoureBreathTaking
— Christian Santos (@XKid_Z) December 15, 2019
next year may 21 will be keanu reeves’s day. my heart is full
— n (@howitglistened) December 16, 2019
May 21, 2021 will be Keanu Reeves day
— 🐺The Prodigy™️ (@KidProdigy205) December 15, 2019
I’m all for Keanu Reeves day
— Sunny-Michel (@sunchbunny) December 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/TimofeyIvaykin/status/1206244936561184770
John Wick chapter 4 and the matrix 4 come out same day in 2021. Keanu Reeves will be fighting himself that day and I can’t wait
— paulbert (@girthhbrookss) December 15, 2019
All this would have been unlikely to have come about were it not for Reeves’ recent surge in popularity. For some time he’d been the butt of frequent jokes referencing his supposedly wooden acting and the mediocrity of many of the films he starred in, despite strong performances in the likes of existential sci-fi drug drama A Scanner Darkly and brutal crime thriller Street Kings. The surprise success of John Wick with its stripped-down minimalism and effortless neo-noir style began his renaissance on screen though, while in real life Keanu Reeves‘ star re-ascended due to countless tales from everyday people who’ve encountered him, each telling of a man invariably genial and boundlessly compassionate.
Of course, May 21st, 2021 is a long way off and the shifting circumstances of release scheduling means that any one of a number of things might happen to prevent this new most blessed of days from taking place. But until it does, whatever else happens during these increasingly desperate times in which we live, we can at least be reminded that pure goodness can and does still exist.