John Wick almost featured Jackie Chan in the main antagonist’s role.

Chad Stahelski’s work on the masterpiece that is the John Wick franchise has been revolutionary. Providing a completely fresh and new take on the action-film genre, the filmmaker has managed to force all future films in it to be compared to the Keanu Reeves films. The series has become legendary, not only providing captivating fight sequences but also featuring a well-written story and a lived-in fantasy world.

A still from Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 4

Considering just how perfect the franchise is, it is difficult to imagine anything that could make it better. It would seem however, this was almost the case. During a recent interview, Stahelski revealed that the franchise almost featured the iconic actor, Jackie Chan, in the role of Caine. What is all the more surprising is that this almost ruined the film as a whole.

Chad Stahelski Wanted Jackie Chan In John Wick

Chad Stahelski recently gave an interview with Josh Horowitz on Watchalong, about his recent film, John Wick: Chapter 4. Here, he was asked if he ever wanted to put the action-movie legend, Jackie Chan in one of his John Wick movies. The filmmaker revealed that he did, in fact, want to feature him in the franchise and so much more.

Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 4

“Yes, I mean to be very very honest, Jackie was the original choise I had for Caine but it was, again, it was very very differnt and it just wasn’t gonng work.”

He revealed that the character of Caine was originally written with Chan in mind. While the filmmaker did not mention if he was ever approached for the role, he did talk about how this decision posed a challenge for this character. He stated that writing this character around and based on a specific person was ruining it.

Jackie Chan Was Ruining The John Wick Films

Chad Stahelski elaborated on how his vision of Caine as Jackie Chan was ruining this character and subsequently, the franchise. This character is a very important part of the story, not only because he was an old friend of John Wick, but because he works as a secondary villain for the fourth film. The filmmaker revealed that since he was writing him with Chan in mind, he became less of an active villain and more of a spectator pulling the strings.

Donnie Yen as Caine Chad Stahelski’s in John Wick: Chapter 4

It was an older thing. This was very early on, and COVID had hit, and it just- I didn’t have the script quite dailed in and as the script eveolved. It just, I kept forcing a kind of character that wasn’t going to work in the movie.” “Originally, Kane wasn’t that active. He was more like the traker. It was a whole different kind of trilogy.” “Caine was now a very action influcended person and it was more John’s brother than a father figure.”

After he recognized this, he realized that an antagonist like this would not work with this film series and Stahelski decided to focus more on that. He made him younger, more like a peer who turned evil rather than a father figure. Consider how now Chan could no longer star in the role, it was given to Donnie Yen, who is ten years younger than the Rush Hour actor.