Colm Meaney may have turned up in a few action films down through the years - Con-Air, Under Siege, The Snapper - but today, the veteran Irish actor makes a jump into full-blown action star status.
entertainment.ie can exclusively reveal that Colm Meaney has now signed on to replace Keanu Reeves in the role of super-assassin John Wick. It's understood that Meaney will begin training for the role immediately and will even receive a small puppy that studio executives will then viciously murder (they won't really, but they'll make it look like they did) in order to help Meaney get into character.
Speaking on his decision to exit the role of John Wick, Reeves said that it was time for a change. "Personally, it's tough trying to balance playing a cold-blooded assassin and being an actual cold-blooded assassin. Colm's a great guy and I loved him in The Commitments, so this all works out. Excuse me, I have to go stab someone in the face with a pencil."
It's also believed that Reeves has to return to the Fountain of Youth every 129 years to rejuvenate himself, and that taking on John Wick: Chapter 3 would have clashed with it.
Although Meaney was unavailable for comment, his representatives said that his experience playing Chief Miles O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has more than prepared him for the role. "He was acting alongside Patrick Stewart for nearly four years. That's basically the same thing as being able to jump over people and shooting them at the same time," said one industry insider.
John Wick: Chapter 3 is expected in Irish cinemas on April 1st, 2019.
