Total Film's 2023 in review: Keanu Reeves and more on the making of John Wick: Chapter 4

This feature originally appeared in issue 334 of Total Film. Subscribe to Total Film here to never miss an issue. 

We’re thinking he’s back… the hardest-hitting American action series returns for a Japanese-flavoured fourth installment that promises a mano-a-mano main event with a martial arts legend and puts John Wick under an existential spotlight in his fight for liberation from the High Table. 

There’s a saying on the set of the John Wick films, one that’s uttered when the punishing demands of a series lauded for its best-in-league action needs to be acknowledged by all present: Wick is pain. It’s an expression that comes from a place of affection and is used for two reasons: “Because Chad [Stahelski], the director, likes to torture John Wick,” chuckles the man typically on the receiving end of said torment, and the phone today, Keanu Reeves. And, secondly, to make it clear to anyone entering the world of Wick that, when it comes to what you see on screen in these films, there are no shortcuts. “A lot of people say they want to do John Wick action,” Reeves notes in that instantly recognizable drawl. “And then when they get there, they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is something else.’” 

For John Wick: Chapter 4, the latest installment in the puppy-avenging punchathon which started from relatively humble beginnings in 2014 and is soon to spawn its own expanded universe (more on that later), Reeves trained intensively for the best part of a year, adding the bow and arrow and nunchucks to an already loaded repertoire of lethal weapons (guns, knives, pencils…). Taking his movie martial arts to the “next level” with judo and ju-jitsu practitioner Dave Camarillo, Reeves also boosted his driving skills for a full-throttle setpiece that takes place in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe. “John Wick: Chapter 4 has the most action of any of the [John Wick] films, which is saying a lot,” Reeves exclaims. “And it’s more by a good margin. It’s a big show!” 

When TF catches up with Reeves and Stahelski in early January there’s a week left until work is completed on Chapter 4. It’s the culmination of a bruising three-year production – the longest period of time the pair have dedicated to a single Wick movie. Contrary to expectations given the series’ ever-deepening mythology, there is no long-term plan, according to Stahelski; no prescriptive multi-movie arc that the team is pursuing with these films. In fact, “after number three, Keanu and I were both fairly done,” the director admits. “We kind of wanted to just end on a cliffhanger.” What changed their opinions, as it has in the past, was a trip to Japan on the home stretch of a Wick publicity tour. “We’re usually down at the Imperial Hotel [in Tokyo]. They have an amazing Scotch bar there,” Stahelski says. “It’s been months since we wrapped. We sit in the Scotch bar, talking about what a good time we had, and, ‘Oh my God, it was painful, but it wasn’t that painful.’ Then you start talking like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if…? We wish we could have done this…’ And usually, by the end of that press tour, we’re like, ‘Hey, man, we should write another script.’” He erupts into a knowing laugh. 

On Chapter 4, the baton was passed from Wick creator Derek Kolstad to 28-year-old screenwriting wunderkind Shay Hatten, who got his big break in 2017 when his Ballerina spec script, written at weekends while Hatten was a writer’s assistant at Robert Downey Jr.’s production company, was bought by Lionsgate with the intention of incorporating the female-assassin story into a wider Wick universe (a process finally nearing completion, see boxout p37). Hatten has a credit on Chapter 3, but wrote this latest installment from whole cloth, and with Reeves, conceived a story that interrogates John Wick’s very reason to keep fighting. “With 4, you get to this place of asking an existential question of John,” explains Hatten, who says that while the tone and action of the films largely comes from Stahelski, the characterization of Wick is all Keanu.”

“When you find him, there’s been a little bit of a time break between [Chapters] 3 and 4. He’s full of rage. He wants revenge on the High Table for the things that happened in the third movie. But the questions that everyone around him is asking are: ‘Literally why are you still doing this? What is the value of your life, even if you get out?’ And would his wife value the man that he’s become in going down this gauntlet of revenge? You get to really examine John’s soul, and make him confront this idea of who he is, and what he’s fighting for.”

Last action hero

In Chapter 3, we learned that John, aka Jardani Jovonovich, was once an orphan taken in by the Ruska Roma crime syndicate – represented by Anjelica Huston’s Director. In order to secure safe passage in that film, he cashes in his remaining chips with the Ruska Roma. Or, more accurately, “My ticket was torn,” says Reeves between gritted teeth, that Wick growl bubbling to the surface. Chapter 4 will again see Wick turning to his found family to take the fight to the High Table – the all-powerful organization seemingly pulling the strings in the film’s heightened underworld of organized killers. “I need my family to do something,” Reeves explains. “I need a reconnection. And I have some trials to go through to make that connection, to try to gain my freedom. But of course, since ‘Wick is pain’, the trials have some tribulations.” 

After fighting his way across Rome and Morocco in previous entries, those tribulations will once again take Wick well outside his native New York. Filmed over four months from late June to late October 2021, the globetrotting script took the production to Aqaba in Jordan, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, and, of course, New York. “I love being on location. Death, to me, is being on a soundstage,” Stahelski states. It is Japan that will have the biggest impact on Chapter 4, with Wick revealed to have history there in the form of two old allies: Donnie Yen’s blind swordsman Caine, and Hiroyuki Sanada’s Shimazu. The choice to tie the series to Japan has elegant thematic connections to the strict honor code observed in Wick’s assassin underworld, but is primarily driven by the fact that both Stahelski and Reeves are passionate fans of Asian cinema, and Japanese culture in general. 

“Japanese anime and Japanese filmmaking have definitely been something I’ve loved and have been influenced by,” Reeves says. “And bushido is definitely a theme in our film – you know, the code of the samurai – so, from the outside, it feels like a great fit, the idea of honor and sacrifice. There’s definitely a strong Japanese influence.” Stahelski succinctly sums up the series’ new flavor: “If you took Sergio Leone and mixed him with Kurosawa, that’s kind of John Wick 4.” 

The Western genre’s influences have always been present in the John Wick films, and have been further expanded in Chapter 4, which introduces single combat, winner-takes-all, pistol dueling to the series’ ornate mythology. “Nothing is more personal than a duel as a way to settle disputes,” Stahelski explains. John sees it as a way to challenge the authority of the High Table but runs into an issue of hierarchy. “You have to earn the right to duel,” Stahelski continues. “Back in the day of medieval duels, you couldn’t duel outside of your class, that’s how they use power to manipulate. I thought that was a fascinating idea to mess with, a way to show a different class within our world. And it’s a nod to all the great westerns out there.” 

Wick’s challenge to the High Table puts him in the crosshairs of the Marquis de Gramont, a “viciously ambitious” individual looking to make a name for himself, played by Bill Skarsgård. “The Marquis is a young man of unknown origin who has quickly climbed the ladder within the High Table doing god knows what,” Skarsgård says. “I always saw him as someone from the gutter that now savors the glittery suits he’s wearing. He functions as the new sheriff set out to rid the world of John Wick once and for all.” 

The Marquis embodies the “bureaucratic evils” of the High Table by enforcing and manipulating the arbitrary rules of a system designed to keep John and others like him under its thumb. He may not be a physical match for John Wick – let’s face it, who is? – but the Marquis’ skill in twisting these rules to his favor makes him a threat that Wick can’t simply fight the only way he knows how. “John’s getting old and tired, the Marquis is offering him a way out,” Skarsgård teases. “To be the one who finally kills the Baba Yaga would secure his status and power within the High Table.”

Wick's world

John isn’t about to move on the High Table alone. Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King is back, and “assists John Wick in the fight against the High Table in the most delightful, unexpected way,” Fishburne hints. And, of course, there’s Ian McShane’s Continental manager, Winston. When last we saw Winston, he had just gunned down his old pal Jonathan, sending him tumbling to the street from the roof of the Continental. The trailer shows Winston and Wick working together, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re allies, teases McShane. “Of course, they’re speaking. They’re on the same side… aren’t they?” 

Similarly complex is the relationship between Wick and Shimazu, a character John has known for a long time, serving in part as “an invitation to explore John’s backstory more”, according to Hatten. Shimazu’s daughter, Akira, is played by singer/songwriter Rina Sawayama in her first screen role. She’s a character who is relatively new to the world of assassins, but what she lacks in experience she makes up for in gun(g)-ho enthusiasm, something Sawayama could relate to as a newcomer to film and John Wick. “The intensive training is something I’ve never had to do before and I was pushed to new limits, which I loved… although it was totally brutal!” Sawayama says. “It was a complete culture shock getting used to the physical training as it’s very different to choreo for stage and music videos, as well as every shot being at night-time, so training your mind to be alert at strange hours. It was a real experience, honestly.” 

Inarguably, the most exciting addition to the cast for Chapter 4 is Hong Kong action icon Donnie Yen as Caine. Long before he was one with the Force in Rogue One, Yen was blazing a trail in Asian action cinema, bringing mixed martial arts and Wing Chun into the mainstream. The idea to cast Yen in a role that would put him in direct conflict with Wick came from Stahelski and Yen’s mutual respect for each other’s work, with Yen describing John Wick as like “the Super Bowl concert stage” of Western action movies, while Stahelski initially pitched Yen on a more traditionally Zatoichitype blind swordsman. “Donnie was like, ‘I get what you’re going for. I just don’t want to be the old, blind guy with a cane.’” Stahelski chuckles. “He came back, and goes, ‘If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather be the cool guy in the suit… It’s John Wick. It’s a suit movie. It’s cool!’ I was like, ‘You know what, Donnie? You’re absolutely right!’” As well as the Zatoichi archetype, Chow YunFat’s character in The Killer was an inspiration, as was footage of Bruce Lee in a tailored suit from an old screen test. “Caine is an old buddy of John Wick – and an ex-assassin as well,” details Yen of a character who is far from a cut-and-dry antagonist. “Most extraordinary is that he is a man who gave up his own sight in exchange for the safety of his daughter.” 

Mortal combat

As Hatten points out, “There’s only so many actors in the world who can pose a viable threat to [Reeves] on an action level, and Donnie Yen is one of those.” According to stunt coordinator and second unit director Scott Rogers, Yen “brings ‘master level’ fighting abilities” to his films, meaning “he is not an actor that you have to train for each specific fight. He is a great actor who is also a trained fighter. His ability to enhance the choreography through his own creativity is world-class. When you add that to the many years of John Wick training that Keanu Reeves has invested, you end up with something very special.” 

Reeves graciously admits that “my bar is nowhere near the heights of Donnie Yen”, adding that “to see his talent in person was amazing”. Like Reeves, Yen is in his late fifties (Yen is in fact 59, while Reeves is a sprightly 58). Describing himself as “older, and not much wiser” than when he first played John Wick nine years ago, Reeves claims that “John Wick: Chapter 4 was the hardest physical role I’ve ever had in my career so far. They really trained me up to be able to have what we call the toolbox.” A key tool that Reeves was required to hone for Chapter 4 was his stunt driving, with the film set to reintroduce car-fu to the series in showstopping style. “We took the car-driving to the next level, which I really enjoy,” Reeves says. “There’s 180s, forward-into-reverse 180s, reverse into-forward 270s, drifting… So it was really fun to get a chance to learn those skills, and to play.”

Everyone involved in the making of the John Wick films recognizes that a crucial element of their success is that Reeves is always visibly front and center of the action, often performing full-on fight scenes in unedited wide shots with nowhere to hide. It’s something that adds untold complexity and challenge to the process – not least to Reeves himself – but the results speak for themselves. “Overall, John Wick films are inherently very difficult because of the level of action and the fact that everyone involved wants Keanu Reeves to be embedded in that action,” Rogers says. “So you have to develop sequences that are physically within his grasp.” That also extended to Chapter 4’s Arc de Triomphe car sequence. “That was challenging in a number of ways,” Rogers adds. “First and foremost was the fact that we wanted it to editorially fit with the rest of the film, as in longer takes with [Reeves] doing the action. We started training Keanu nine months in advance to develop his driving skills and then choreograph the sequences around his strengths and abilities. Then we started developing a way to shoot it that would more resemble a John Wick fight than a standard car sequence.” 

Stahelski is confident he has the most committed and capable leading man in Hollywood when it comes to action, and especially car stunts. “I dare you to find anybody, any cast member in Hollywood – and I’m including all the big names – that can drive better than [Reeves],” an animated Stahelski says. “I’ll throw down the gauntlet! You know the other names I’m throwing it down to, and I bet Keanu can out-drive them all. That’s how much time we put in. No skydiving or base-jumping; I can’t throw that gauntlet for sure. But in a vehicle, he’s amazing. And he puts in the time not just on set – he puts in the pre-lap time.”

Expansion pack

Given that the mainline John Wick series has gone from strength to strength both critically and commercially, and shows no signs of abating, it should come as no surprise that the world of Wick is currently expanding. Later this year The Continental, a three-episode miniseries set in the eponymous New York hitman hotel, will air, starring Mel Gibson, with Colin Woodell as a young Winston. Then there’s Ballerina, in which Ana de Armas stars as a Ruska Roma dance assassin (see page 39). Already confirmed is that John Wick will appear in the latter and throw down with de Armas’ character. 

At one stage, there were even reports that John Wick Chapters 4 and 5 would film back to back. A follow-up to 4 is still officially unconfirmed though, at least until it’s discussed over a glass of Scotch in Tokyo. “You have to see how the audience responds to what we did,” says Reeves, who has proven time and time again across his career that he knows how to pick films that audiences connect to. “The only reason we’ve had a chance to make these movies is that people have liked what we have done. So I think we have to wait and see how the audience responds to it. Hopefully, they’ll like it.” As for the decision not to shoot two films back to back, Stahelski is confident he made the right call.”

“I understand the mentality to do that. I’ve been part of a couple of projects that have shot back to back, way back to the Matrixes,” noted Stahelski, having famously doubled for Reeves as Neo in the original trilogy. “But I grow a lot in between films. Hopefully, someday, someone who maybe has nothing else to do for the weekend will watch all four John Wicks, and I would like to think that the movies get not just bigger, but better, because in between I got better. It gives you that time to breathe, to research, to come up with new ideas, to try different things.”

Since making his feature directing debut with the first film in 2014, as a features director Stahelski has worked exclusively on the John Wick series, though not for lack of trying to get other projects off the ground, including a long-mooted Highlander reboot. If the filmmaker has his way, he’ll finally turn his attention to a non-Wick project next – Without Remorse follow-up Rainbow Six, starring Michael B. Jordan. “You might have to give me and John Wick just a little break,” Stahelski says. “Ask me in a couple of months. In the next week, I’m praying to the movie gods that I finish this one.” 

Though he’s yet to see a finished cut at the time we speak, Reeves is confident they’ve pulled off something special with this latest installment; no mean feat given the series’ spectacular track record. “John Wick: Chapter 4 is our opus,” he says without hesitation, incapable of containing his enthusiasm. “Oh my god, it’s crazy, man! It’s banana cakes!” John Wick might be a pain, but Reeves knows better than anyone: no pain, no gain.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is available to stream on Prime Video right now. For more Wick check out our piece on the ending of John Wick 4 explained. If you're up to speed, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything coming in 2024 and beyond.