John Wick: Chapter 4 boasts a franchise-record runtime of close to 3 hours, but director Chad Stahelski now reveals that the movie was initially a lot longer. After three increasingly successful installments, Keanu Reeves' titular assassin returns in John Wick: Chapter 4, this time attempting to take down the High Table. It was revealed last fall that the upcoming movie would be close to three hours, but, thankfully, most critics seem to agree that the sequel more than earns its runtime.
Now, ahead of the John Wick: Chapter 4 release date, Stahelski reveals in an interview with IndieWire that the first cut of the movie actually ran closer to 4 hours. Editor Nathan Orloff then explains how they went about cutting the super-sized John Wick movie down to its current runtime of 2 hours and 49 minutes. Check out the comments from Stahelski and Orloff below:
Stahelski: “To be really honest with you, zero was planned out. Our first cut was three hours and 45 minutes, and it felt like three hours and 45 minutes. We were like, oh, we’re so screwed.”
Orloff: “You just compress, compress, compress. I went through a pass where anytime someone repeated an idea they had already expressed, I cut it out. No repeated ideas. It’s a very linear story, so there wasn’t a ton of reconstruction or rearrangement we could do. It was just a matter of sifting out what we didn’t need.”
Why John Wick: Chapter 4 Is So Long
The first John Wick came in at a lean 1 hour and 41 minutes and its sequel at 2 hours and 2 minutes. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum was the longest of the lot at 2 hours and 11 minutes. Like each of its predecessors, the upcoming sequel seems to be a lot longer because of the amount of world-building it's doing. While the first John Wick was a relatively straightforward revenge movie, each of the sequels further built out the franchise's vast assassin world.
With John Wick: Chapter 4 expected to deal extensively with the High Table, it's looking like audiences will be learning a lot more about the customs and hierarchy of the franchise's mysterious network of assassins. As this universe expands, so too does the number of characters involved in the story. The third movie introduced a number of new characters, and John Wick: Chapter 4 looks to take this to another level, adding the likes of Bill Skarsgård, Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Clancy Brown, and Shamier Anderson.
As the universe grows larger and the threats Wick faces become bigger and more formidable, the number of action scenes also goes up. For example, John Wick: Chapter 4 features 14 action sequences throughout its almost 3-hour runtime. While it remains to be seen how audiences will receive John Wick: Chapter 4, it's certainly shaping up to be the most epic and expansive entry in the franchise by far.
Source: IndieWire
