Trivia / John Wick: Chapter 4

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Donnie Yen's character was initially named "Shang or Chang" and had a costume with a mandarin collar, while also being very Zen-like, traits which Yen felt were Asian stereotypes and didn't suit his personality and action style. He and the director subsequently reworked the character into Caine, a sharp-dressed snarker who uses quick, flashy moves.
  • Keanu Reeves had trouble keeping up with Donnie Yen's speed and energy, so he suggested that the fight choreography be changed so that John would disengage whenever possible and rely on sneak attacks against Caine to show that he's the one character in the film universe who is a true danger to John and show why the Marquis picked him for the job.
• California Doubling: The PATH doubles as the Osaka Metro in the brief scene we see of it.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Likely as an apology for Hiroyuki Sanada needing to drop out of Chapter 3^note he was initially cast as Zero, but left when he did not recover from surgery to his Achilles tendon as fast as he hoped, he is cast as Shimazu Koji in this film.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Keanu Reeves went through 12 weeks of training in martial arts and stunt driving to do as many of the action sequences himself.
  • Scott Adkins donned prosthetics and a sizeable fat suit for this film and had to endure everything becoming waterlogged and heavy while shooting fight scenes. He also practiced card tricks until he could pull the moves without looking at his hands.
• Enforced Method Acting: Chad Stahelski claims that Keanu Reeves didn't really need to act to depict John's anger at the steps up to Sacré-Cœur Basilica. After shooting long fight sequences running up the steps and getting knocked back down across multiple nights, Reeves' exhaustion and frustration started seeping through.
• God Does Not Own This World: This is, markedly, the first film of the franchise without any involvement from Derek Kolstad, the first film's screenwriter and "creator" of the franchise (hence all films and JW projects having a "Based on characters created by Derek Kolstad" credit).
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to Lance Reddick, who played series regular Charon in every film since the first, and who passed away a few days before the film's US release.
• No Stunt Double: As with previous John Wick film, Keanu Reeves did a great many stunts himself, including the complex driving sequences. The doors of the 1971 Barracuda John drives were removed specifically to show that it was Reeves behind the wheel at every angle.
• Permanent Placeholder: According to Stahelski, the whole "I am Klaus" gag was penciled in the script as a placeholder, as the character hadn't been cast yet and the writers couldn't think of proper dialogue for him at the time. After a while, they decided "Oh that's kind of funny, we'll just keep it."
• Playing Against Type: While Scott Adkins has played villains before, they tend to be fairly stoic, straightforwardly menacing, and physically fit. Killa, however, is an obese Large Ham who gleefully chews the scenery and is the most openly comedic of the series's villains. He still can kick ass, though.
• Posthumous Credit: The film released shortly after Lance Reddick (Charon) passed away. This is not set to be his final appearance as the character, as he is confirmed to have filmed scenes for the Ballerina spin-off.
• Promoted Fanboy: Scott Adkins is a huge fan of Keanu Reeves and the John Wick films and was over the moon in having the chance to fight Keanu himself in one.
• Recycled Set: The PATH, representing the Osaka Metro in this film, was previously featured as the C train in Chapter 2.
• Refitted for Sequel: Being played by a 6ft4in, gravelly-voiced Clancy Brown, the Harbringer appears at least somewhat based on the original concept for the Adjudicator in Chapter 3.
• Release Date Change: Lionsgate initially scheduled the film for a May 21, 2021 release date, which would have put it in a Dueling Works situation with none other than an installment of Keanu Reeves' other iconic franchise, The Matrix Resurrections (which was moved to December). The film's release was then delayed to May 27, 2022 due to the pandemic delaying production, and was delayed again to March 24, 2023 to avoid going up against Top Gun: Maverick.
• Throw It In!: On the first take of John pulling Killa’s tooth out, Keanu Reeves accidentally yanked Scott Adkins’ lip. On the next take, Adkins rolled his lip up to get it out of the way, which looked silly but director Stahelski liked it so he kept it in.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Based on an accidental leak by Shamier Anderson, the film was originally going to be subtitled Chapter 4: Hagakure, but the final release saw no subtitle.
  • It was originally intended for this film to be produced as a Movie Multipack alongside Chapter 5, but for various reasons^note likely a mix of Keanu Reeves' commitment to The Matrix Resurrections, COVID making it extra difficult to film two movies simultaneously (especially with the John Wick films demanding on-location filming in foreign locales), and a desire to concentrate resources on one film it was decided to just film Chapter 4 as a standalone project. The initial cut was 225 minutes^note 3 hours and 45 minutes, and it took extensive trimming to bring it down to the final length, a still-hefty 169 minutes^note 2 hours and 49 minutes.
  • According to director Chad Stahelski, production shot an alternate ending which unambiguously confirmed John's survival, but it was heavily rejected by the audience of the one test screening it was shown in, leading them to go with the initial ending seen in the final film.
• Word of God states that Akira actually succeeded in killing Caine in the post-credit stinger scene, but since it was left out of the movie, it's potentially non-canon.

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