In a world where franchise filmmaking is king, making a new franchise isn’t an easy job. And yet, 10 years ago, Stuntmen turned directors Chad Stehelski and David Leitch came together and gave the world John Wick. The movie gave new life to Keanu Reeves and every entry is among the best action movies of the decade. It’s a massive story that starts with the death of a dog, and of all the deaths in the film, that one was the most difficult.
All of the action of the now four-movie series starts off because a gangster kills John Wick’s puppy. It’s the death of the gift given to him by his wife who has recently died. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of John Wick co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch spoke with Business Insider and Leitch discussed the fact that many tried to talk them out of killing the dog. Leitch said…
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.
It’s certainly true that a lot of people have a harder time with animals dying in movies than people. It’s understandable why people would be afraid that killing off the dog would alienate the audience. While a moment like that would certainly be powerful, if it’s too big a moment, it could get the audience to disengage from early on.
But to the directors, the key to John Wick is the fantasy of it all. Stahelski has previously called the movie “wacky” and it’s true the franchise has more in common with superhero movies than it might appear at first glance. The world of John Wick is an impossible one. This makes the puppy moment less “real.” Another way the scene was handled in a way to not upset people too much was in how the scene was actually filmed. Chad Stahelski described it all saying…
Dave and I were very in sync on how we were going to shoot the scene. We were going to use a baby lens; John gets hit hard in the head, so it’s going to be dream-like; the dog death happens off-camera, and all you are going to see in the aftermath is this trail of the blood making it look like the puppy tried to crawl to him.
The shooting method disconnects the scene, with the audience seeing it all through John Wick’s disoriented eyes. That likely softened it all to a degree. Still, the question of killing the dog was an issue for the rest of the movie’s production, with some suggesting they change the film’s ending to undo it all. Stahelski continued…
So on the day, Keanu was acting with a stuffed dog. Crying. He’s all beat up. He looks awful in his pajamas. Everyone behind the monitors must have thought, ‘OK, this is the worst idea; these first-time directors are done.’ For the next couple of weeks it was suggested that we shoot an alternative ending revealing that the puppy actually isn’t dead. But Keanu stood up for us. And Basil stood up to the investors, and eventually, they just felt, ‘Fuck it, let’s see what these guys can do.’
What these guys could do, as it turned out, was create an incredibly innovative and stylized action movie that’s become one of the best modern action franchises. The original John Wick was a modest hit but one that a lot of fans found via word of mouth. From there sequels would follow with each one becoming a bigger box office hit than the last.
John Wick fans have the spinoff film Ballerina to look forward to on the 2025 movie calendar. The future of the main franchise is a question at this point, but it’s possible we haven’t seen the last of Keanu Reeves as John Wick.