The original John Wick movie script was way more subtle and had only a handful of deaths than what fans finally saw on the big screen.
Director Chad Stahelski revealed John Wick had far fewer kills in the original script than what appeared in the final movie. The high-class hitman played by Keanu Reeves in Lionsgate's action franchise has bathed nearly 300 people in their own blood so far. The film series launched in 2014 with Stahelski's John Wick, and was followed by John Wick: Chapter 2
WE RECOMMEND THE VIDEO: Most Popular DREAMWORKS Movies 1998 - 2020
The highest-grossing dreamworks movies of all time. Measured worldwide unadjusted for ticket price inflation. I'm 22 years old. I enjoy making videos about ...
in 2017 and
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum in 2019 - both also directed by Stahelski.
As it turns out, the action in the John Wick franchise is a big part of what's made it such a hit. John Wick movie reviews spotlighted the violence and action in the initial film, and Stahleski and his team have upped the ante in its sequels. Part of the excitement in the action is John Wick's kill count, and the creative ways in which he takes down his enemies. The first John Wick film had somewhere around 80 kills, which shot up to 128 in the sequel. The number was brought down to around 94 in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. But that first film could've had a much lower kill count.
In an interview with ComicBook, Stahelski spoke about the original John Wick script he was sent when he officially boarded the project, which was very restrained. In it, only three people died, two of which were killed in a car crash. As he explained:
"It was much more contained. I think only three people died in the original script, two were in a car crash. It was very, very minimal, and it was slightly different. I read it, and I'd always had this idea about Greek mythology and how to tell more a fablestic kind of story, make a surreal action movie so it wasn't so grounded and gray, just something different."
In terms of the massive kill counts in the John Wick movies, particularly the jump from 80 to over 120 from the first film to John Wick 2, Stahelski said it isn't intentional. Rather, he and his stunt team choreograph the action scenes with the motions in mind, rather than the number of bad guys being killed. He said, "People joke about it [the kill count], but the way I choreograph with my guys and stuff, we just choreograph motion and set pieces and we try to get this balletic kind of dance, live performance feel to everything." The director went on to explain that as a result of Reeves' action skills and the desire to push the John Wick action scenes to be bigger and more exciting, the kill count of the films has increased:
"I think, just by nature, because Keanu's gotten so much better with the choreography and the martial arts and the motion and we change weapons so much and we get bigger set pieces, that, just by its very nature, because the scene grows, the body count grows. But we don't start off going, 'Okay, what was in number three? How do we beat it for number four?' We just choreograph and it happens."
Now, three movies into the franchise, it's difficult to imagine John Wick without the massive kill count, and only three deaths in that original movie. Perhaps there wouldn't even be a John Wick 4 and 5 in the works if Stahelski hadn't reworked the script and turned Reeves' character into the mythical murderer he is in the movies. Of course, there's no way to know if that first film would've been just as popular if the change hadn't been made, but with how successful the franchise has been and continues to be, it would seem Stahelski made the right call with John Wick.