The Studio Notes for 'John Wick' Were Dumb As Hell

Everyone knows the basic gist of John Wick by now. A man’s dog gets killed, and he launches a ruthlessly choreographed revenge spree that’s now stretched four movies and counting. It’s as basic a hook as it gets, which is why it worked. However, the investors behind the first John Wick were not loving that premise so much.

To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Keanu Reeves going all gun-fu on people, franchise directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch sat down with Business Insider where they revealed that there was not a lot of faith in the movie. Particularly, it’s most memorable aspect: The aforementioned puppycide.

Leitch: We were told, “It’s bad luck.” “It’s bad juju.” “It’s ‘Old Yeller,’ you can’t do this!” “No one will want to see this on screen; you’re going to alienate the audience.” And I’m like, “We’re going to execute people at close range; killing the dog is one thing, but what about the brutal massacre of all these human beings? Are they going to be able to accept that?”

They didn’t understand that we were making a genre movie. We are genre fans to the core, and we know those hard-boiled moments are what make memorable moments.

According to Stahelski, the suits wanted the movie to end with the revelation that actually, John Wick’s dog survived, and Keanu wasn’t having it. He pushed back, and finally, the investors backed off.

Of course, not killing the dog wasn’t the only note. John Wick quickly became a pop culture icon, and thanks to recency bias, you would be forgiven for saying it’s Reeves’ most famous role. Just say the name John Wick, and you immediately picture a bearded Keanu in a classy suit tearing through jabronis. Turns out, the investors didn’t want the beard. They hated it.

“We were trying to do a modern-day Greek mythology fantasy movie,” Stahelski told Insider. “That’s not mainstream. So we wanted to do something cool with Keanu. But the money people, they wanted to see Keanu f*cking Reeves. ‘Point Break’ Keanu, ‘Speed’ Keanu. And I don’t know if this exists anymore, but at the time we were told by the powers that be you don’t cover up your leading man’s face with a beard.”

Obviously, things worked out in the end. John Wick became a smash hit for Lionsgate and went on to enjoy the fruits of a franchise that will eventually be milked to death if it hasn’t already.

In the meantime, Mikey Neumann’s ears have to be perking up at that “modern-day Greek mythology” line. Way back in 2016, he dropped a FilmJoy video that theorized the first Wick movie was actually about the Gods of Olympus. I’ll leave that here for your enjoyment:

(Via Business Insider)