Exposing too much, very quickly, and quite narcissistic, instead of focusing on John Wick. Over the years, Stahelski has been able to serve up a steady pace of increasing action and expansion through the world of assassins, while always maintaining top billing for the titular character, as he proves to be Hollywood’s best deliverer of a lead’s vengeance.
When John Wick first came out, it was surprising to see a movie that could become as huge as it did with people not knowing who John Wick was before. “[Keanu] was doing smaller films. We, Honest to God, believed no one was going to see the movie. We thought we were going straight to video.” But, when the fourth installment was released, it raked in nearly $450 million worldwide. “It’s been a wild ride,” Stahelski says.
Stahelski was able to draw on his own strengths as a filmmaker for the franchise. His philosophy is reflected through the ‘kooky and big’ scenes while respecting the Old World with the notable inclusion of classic literature like Dante’s Divine Comedy and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War referenced in the movies. His artistry in bringing all the elements together can be seen from all three of the John Wick movies.
From the onset, Stahelski’s inexperience as a director started to show; beginning with being mistaken for a crew member, to feeling out-of-depth by the third week. Looking back now, a willingness to embrace inexperience has catapulted the director into carving a path of his own in action-packed scenes that have trained audiences to expect bigger and better with each release of a John Wick movie.
Indeed, it’s clear that Stahelski’s John Wick is not just a mere cookie-cutter action hero. The evolution of the franchise, deep-rooted in realism and high-octane physical comedy, has proven that the once vulnerable Wick, already hailed for his portrayal, has since transformed into someone capable of taking on an entire universe of assassins.
