The Assassination Of John Wick's Dog Was Almost Removed From Film; Chad Stahelski Reveals.
The director of the famous "John Wick" movie has revealed in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he and the producer, David Leitch contemplated removing the "assassination of John Wick's dog" many times before the eventual production of the original movie.
He said this in response to whether the 2014 action movie thriller would have been such a big hit if John's dog wasn't killed. "Killing the puppy was written out as many times as it was written back in. Ultimately, it’s mythological. We had to go so overboard and extreme to push it to let you know it was symbolic. We’re not trying to hold the realism. We want the viewers to know we’re laughing. But you don’t even know how much Dave and I stressed about that, Stahelski said.
He explained that they worried it might be a wrong move. If they were putting a lot at stake to produce a movie where they would later have to kill a dog, he feared it might be disastrous, and they might never recover from the effect.
" Holy shit, we were risking credit cards, a house mortgage, everything. Basil Iwanyk put his company up. And then you have that day where you realize we’re doing all this, and we’re killing a puppy? I thought we would never come back from it," he admitted.
If you watched 2014 John Wick, you would recall that the main character, John Wick, had been murdered, which became the script's most significant catalyst. Stahelski said he and Leitch, the producer, had to convince even the studio executives to go ahead with the script because some of them struggled with the pup's murder. The studio later agreed with the filmmaker's vision after watching fans accept it as much vigour as anticipated.
"We were watching the audience, as soon as the dog died, and seeing their reaction and then seeing the siege in the house, we were like, yep, we were right," John Wick's screenwriter, Kolstad said.
Although fans mourned the loss of Wick's dog with him, Wick got another pit bull puppy that accompanied him in the 2017 & 2019 sequels, and the audience did love him as he got his own Funko Pop alongside its super-assassin owner John Wick.
Fans Can Expect John Wick 4 By March 24th
If you watched Chapters 2 & 3 of the thriller, you would already be familiar with the super-assassin's new companion. With a new chapter on its way, you can finally find out if the duo will find some peace eventually.
The movie director said Chapter 4, coming to cinemas by March 24th, 2023, starts in a different dimension. John Wick discovers a way to defeat the High Table in this sequel. But before achieving his freedom, Wick must contend against a new enemy with influential alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.
We can expect to learn new things about John, many action scenes with "gun-fu" fight choreography, and a deeper dive into Wick's mythology. The cast also includes Japanese-British pop star Rina Sawayama who plays the role of Bill Skarsgård, the new baddie Marquis de Gramont, who offers John his freedom from the High Table if he defeats him in combat. Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, George Georgiou, who replaced Saïd Taghmaoui as The Elder, Clancy Brown, and Shamier Anderson.