John Wick 4 casts pop star Rina Sawayama to join Keanu Reeves. Bob Odenkirk starred this year as a highly trained killer in the bruising action film Nobody, and garnered plenty of comparisons to John Wick in the process. Odenkirk’s exploits in that film may have satisfied Wick fans for the time being, but indeed nothing compares to the original.

Reeves first played the original dog-loving assassin John Wick in 2014, in a movie that went on to be a sleeper hit. The second John Wick, released in 2017, was anything but a sleeper as it rang up $171 million worldwide. 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum continued ratcheting up the action, and building out the universe, on its way to $326 million. John Wick: Chapter 4 is now going forward, with filming reportedly set to begin in June in Berlin, Paris, New York and Japan.

Related: Nobody vs. Atomic Blonde: Which John Wick Clone Is Better

Reeves will of course be back as John Wick in the fourth go-around for the series (and the fifth, though John Wick 4 and 5 reportedly will no longer film back-to-back as originally planned). As reported by Deadline, he’ll be joined in the film by Sawayama, as the British-Japanese pop star makes her feature film debut. No details about her role have been revealed.

John Wick 4

Aspiring movie star Sawayama was born in Japan but moved to London at the age of five, later going to Cambridge University where she studied politics, psychology and sociology. After initially supporting herself with modeling, Sawayama launched her music career in 2013 with the single “Sleeping in Waking.” Her first album Sawayama was released in 2020 and was praised by critics on both sides of the Atlantic for its pop and R&B sound influenced by everyone from Christina Aguilera to Pink to Beyonce to Taylor Swift. John Wick: Chapter 4 director Chad Stahelski of course sang Sawayama's praises upon the announcement of her casting, saying “I’m so glad to have Rina on board to make her feature film debut in John Wick: Chapter 4.” He added, “She’s an incredible talent who’ll bring so much to the film.”

Sawayama is obviously very inexperienced when it comes to film acting, but pop stars like her do often make the successful leap to movies given their comfort with performance and overall charisma. Indeed the list of pop stars who successfully transitioned to movie careers is very long, and includes everyone from Elvis Presley to Madonna to Barbra Streisand to Lady Gaga to Justin Timberlake. The John Wick franchise is indeed an interesting point-of-entry for Sawayama as she enbarks on a new phase of her career, especially if it’s her plan to become an action star. It will be fascinating to see what Sawayama adds to John Wick 4 when it finally arrives. Thus far, little is known about the movie, but no doubt details will begin trickling out as the film prepares to go before cameras.

More: Why Nobody Is Much More Than A John Wick Clone

Source: Deadline

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