I have to begin this article on a somber note, acknowledging the recent death of the great Lance Reddick, who sadly passed away on Match 17, just a couple of weeks after I spoke to him and his co-stars at the John Wick: Chapter 4 junket. You’ll see a couple of quotes from Reddick below, who brought his innate aura of confidence and authority you felt throughout his work to the role of Charon in the John Wick films and will be greatly missed.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is quite an accomplishment, filling its 169 minute running time with some truly phenomenal and jaw-dropping action sequences that are amazing to behold. The Wick series has proven to be an especially impressive franchise, with three crowd-pleasing hit films in a row and a new one that seems poised for even greater success and is already boasting some terrific reviews.
Read on for what Keanu Reeves, franchise director Chad Stahelski and returning cast members Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, and Laurence Fishburne had to say about what has kept the series so popular, the backstories of the supporting characters, and the psyche of Mr. John Wick.
MAKING WICK TICK
Fandom recently asked clinical psychologist Dr. Drea Letamendi to provide a psychological profile of John Wick, based on what we’ve seen of the character in the first three films and his notably laser focused and lethal approach. This is, after all, a guy who’s now going into his fourth film of what is a rather insane killing spree – albeit of other contract killers and criminals – all of which was motivated by the death of his dog in the first film.
At one point, Dr. Drea wrote, of John Wick’s neverending body count:
Wick’s wiring becomes more attuned to dissociation, emotional numbness, cognitive narrowness, and neutrality toward violence, all allowing for improved meticulousness for the craft. The lifestyle, however psychologically hazardous, makes him sharper, faster, better.
Told some of Dr. Drea’s analysis, Keanu Reeves replied, “I would say that the dissociative practices or wiring occurred in his youth and childhood and upbringing. I would counter that he doesn’t have emotional numbness completely. So I would say that he’s compartmentalized. Obviously, because of his passion, his love for his wife, I feel that he is very emotional but I believe that this other character, John Wick, does operate a… not dissociative, but there is dumbness or… I don’t know, it gets tricky. So I agree and I disagree. It would be a conversation. But not wrong!”
Dr. Drea had noted that you see John Wick’s lighter side (relatively speaking) in his bond with characters like Winston and Charon and, of course, through his love of dogs, from the tragically murdered Daisy to the unnamed dog who’s accompanied him on several adventures now and how that latter trait reflects the positive attributes of pet therapy. Reeves said he enjoyed playing those moments and elaborated on his mention of John Wick as a separate identity, observing, “I actually think of the character as two characters. I feel like there’s John the man, the husband. And then there’s John Wick the assassin. And I think that these two parts of this person, this character, have not been synthesized. And I feel like John Wick: Chapter 4 is about that synthesizing… That integration.”
Said director Chad Stahelski, of John’s state of mind, “I think sometimes emotional numbness can also have the reciprocal side of being overly attuned to emotion. And that can be a driving force as well. I think John Wick is in a little bit of a conundrum about what he really wants, and what the effects of that [are]. I think he’s slightly blind to the ramifications or consequences. As you can tell in this movie, it’s about consequences.”
Stahelski elaborated, “John thinks he’s the hero of his own story, but what he’s doing is disrupting other people’s lives and people pay the consequences for his actions. What is that? Narcissistic? Is that psychopathic? We always laugh when we’re doing another scene with John like, ‘Okay, how are we making him look like the jerk this time?’ Because that’s really what he does, it’s just Keanu does it in such a charming way you forget that this is really because he kind of overreacted in the first movie and he couldn’t deal with grief a certain way. So yeah, that’s probably an interesting psychological assessment.”
UPWARD TRAJECTORY
The John Wick series is a rarity in Hollywood, beginning as a relatively small first film that found success to a franchise where each film has made more than the previous one.
Replying to a fan question from CinderHella2024, asking if the John Wick team were surprised by the nearly decade-long popularity they’ve maintained, Stahelski replied, “Completely shocked. Keanu and our little creative team, we just try to make movies that we want to see. We draw from films we love. Samurai films, westerns… and the fact that we throw it all together and other people like it is kind of tripping us out a little bit. Like who are all you crazy people? We’re very fortunate, but still can’t believe it. You never know. John Wicks don’t come across very well on paper. Kill 80 people for a puppy, ninjas on motorcycles… Let’s have him ride a horse through Brooklyn and then we’ll do it in a desert and then we’ll throw him down 200 stairs. Those don’t ever seem like great ideas when you’re pitching them so you never know how it’s going to come out.”
Ian McShane, who’s played Continental Hotel manager Winston since the first film, remarked, of John Wick’s popularity, “I think you’re always surprised. It was a terrific independent-type movie with a lot of good actors, a great script, and it was an exciting thing and we did it and that was it. Two years later, here we go again. And then suddenly, two years later, there we go again,” noting he and Reddick had just also finished work on the spinoff film Ballerina as well.
Added McShane, “Shows develop their own kind of momentum and this did, but I think that’s mostly due to Keanu and Chad being so involved,” adding he felt the scripts had also maintained the beloved qualities of the first one. “It’s a difficult thing to do, but I think they’ve managed it pretty well over the decade that we’ve been doing it.”
Laurence Fishburne joined the John Wick series with the second film, reuniting with his Matrix co-star Reeves in his role as the Bowery King. For his part, the actor said he wasn’t that surprised by John Wick finding such a loyal audience, “Because I know that Keanu and Chad and their whole team, they set an intention that with each movie that they would make, they would raise the stakes just a little bit more every time and try to do something that was a little unexpected, was a little better than the last time. And they’ve been successful at that. And this movie is really the payoff of all the hard work from 1 to 2 to 3. This movie… It’s huge.”
When Reeves heard me say the Wick films keep gaining in popularity, he didn’t want to jinx the fourth film, saying, “Hopefully it gains in popularity, because we made it with love, and we hope that people appreciate what we did, because it’s for you… and us! But yes, absolutely surprised. And grateful.”
BEFORE JOHN
Winston, Charon, and the Bowery King are among a very small circle John Wick has been able to turn to for help as it seems nearly every other assassin on Earth – and in the John Wick world, wow are there a lot of assassins – has tried to kill him. The nature of the films and their focus on John’s predicaments and the thrilling way he gets out of them mean there’s not a ton of time to get details about the supporting players, with small details sprinkled in for the audience to ponder.
Said Lance Reddick, of what he’s observed about Charon, “Here’s what’s really interesting about that. On my first day of the first film – I always say ‘my first day on the first film’ but I worked one day on that film! – but the first thing that Chad came up to me [to say] in terms of direction, he just said that you always want to get the sense that no matter how genteel and poised Charon is that if something went down, he could reach under the desk and grab a shotgun and take care of business. Interestingly enough, I had been thinking about that before we started shooting. So when he said that to me, it was kind of a nice confirmation. So when the opportunity actually came up for that to happen in John Wick 3, it was not only a pleasant surprise, but it just felt very much in character.”
McShane said he felt it only made sense that if you run a hotel for assassins you’d need to have your own skills, grinning as he told Reddick that, when it came to Charon and Winston, “Charming as they are, you have to the exterior of Ricardo Montalban [in Fantasy Island] and the interior of Bruce Lee.”
A younger Winston will be seen in the upcoming series The Continental, played byColin Woodell , though McShane said he knew nothing about that version. However, McShane and Reddick noted that they’d actually discussed the history between their characters, with Reddick explaining they both agreed it went back decades.
Said McShane, “They are a formidable duo, but they don’t have to prove anything. That’s the great thing. They don’t have to show off. We run the hotel. ‘Anything you need?’ So it’s kind of like surface charm, but don’t f**k with what’s below, you know?”
We know little about the Bowery King’s background but it does stand out that he managed to survive an assassination attempt by eventual ally John Wick, which Fishburne said certainly seemed to identify him as “A pretty tough motherf**ker.”
Beyond that, Fishburne said he hadn’t pondered much of his character’s backstory, explaining, “I don’t need to spend a whole lot of time thinking about any of that, really, as a supporting player in this thing. Particularly with this Chapter 4, my job is to set the table for what you’re about to experience. So I have that sort of Dante-esque kind of poem I start with and bring you into the world, reintroduce you to John, with the full intention of letting you know that he’s ready, he’s strong, he’s prepared and there will be there will be lots of whoopass going on.”
CHAPTER 4‘S STUNNING SEQUENCES
The action sequences in John Wick: Chapter 4 are incredible and involve so many different elements – including tons of actors, stunt performers, sets, props, and much more – it’s rather astounding to behold.
Responding to a fan question from kikisbinky about what the most challenging scene was to pull off, Reeves replied, “First of all, the challenges are the gifts, right? And I would just say the whole thing. There was such an ambition with the vision and the hope for what we could do. And so with the training and the physicality of the role, and that it took place over seven months of filming it, it was just being able to do it day after day.”
Stahelski agreed the film, start to finish, was quite a challenge but did think one sequence stood out, namely a scene that finds John fighting a ton of opponents at Paris’ Arc de Triomphe both on foot and behind the wheel of a car.
Said Stahelski, “Just having that many vehicles, that many people, that many stunts, a dog and gunfire in the middle of all this traffic is always a little tricky. People forget that Keanu is driving that car and he is at 45-50 miles an hour and that is oncoming traffic. And Keanu is weaving through those stunt drivers. Granted, we have certain ways to differentiate what lane to stay in. But the penalty of missing is pretty epic. It is a head on collision at 35-40 miles an hour. So you’re a little puckered up behind the monitor going, ‘Don’t miss, don’t miss, don’t miss!’”
John Wick: Chapter 4 opens March 24.
