John Wick: Chapter 4 co-writer Michael Finch explains why so many characters seem to be friends with Keanu Reeves' John Wick, a lone hitman. After the breakout success of the first film in 2016, Reeves has returned as the titular assassin for two sequels, with a third about to release. While Wick takes on hordes of enemies all on his own throughout the John Wick movies, he often receives help from various allies, including the likes of Laurence Fishburne's Bowery King and Randall Duk Kim's The Doctor.
Ahead of the John Wick: Chapter 4 release date, Finch sat down for an interview with The New York Times, discussing just why Reeves' character seems to have so many buddies in the assassin underworld. What it comes down to, he reveals, is that John is just genuinely a nice guy, but the allies also serve important story purposes. Check out Finch's full comment below:
"Wick has so many friends in this world because, at the end of the day, he’s inherently a good man. And he’s Keanu, so it’s very hard to dislike him.
“I wouldn’t know how to tell [a story without John Wick's friends]. There would not be a successful franchise without a Winston, without a Charon, without a Bowery King.
We excuse a lot of what John does because people like the Doctor, who are inherently OK and decent, seem to respond positively to him."
John Wick Wouldn't Work Without Allies
While the main attraction when it comes to a John Wick movie is Reeves' character dispatching enemies with ruthless but balletic precision in a variety of settings, the ing characters are really the ones who flesh out the world of the story. John Wick: Chapter 2 opened up the franchise in many ways, building out the mythology of the assassin underworld and showing that John is actually part of a much larger, globe-spanning machine.
Outside of Ian McShane's Winston, John Wick: Chapter 2 introduces Fishburne's Bowery King. The Bowery King isn't necessarily one of Wick's friends, but he does become his ally because his goals align with Wick's desire to take down the High Table. The Bowery King, then, and his assassin army of disguised homeless New Yorkers, puts John in the middle of a larger conflict, complicating Reeves' characters straightforward quest for revenge.
Similarly, Winston and Charon (played by the late Lance Reddick), play an even more important role in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Because they had been allies to Wick throughout the franchise, it's even more of a shock when Winston shoots John off a roof, allowing the story to take a hard left turn. Betrayals can only happen, after all, if you trust someone. It remains to be seen which new John Wick: Chapter 4 characters will be allies, but the sequel is already shaping up to be a major expansion for the franchise.
Source: The New York Times
