Chad Stahelski talks about casting of Shimazu Akira in John Wick 4

John Wick 4 marked the end of the story of our beloved assassin/hitman as he finally succumbed to his injuries and died. Ever since the end of the story of Keanu Reeves’ John Wick, the director, Chad Stahelski has opened up a lot about the future of the franchise and revealed that although Reeves might not reprise his role as the titular character, a sequel movie and a few spinoff series are still in the works.

Keanu Reeves in John Wick 4

In a recent episode of Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz, Chad Stahelski talked in detail about the casting, and filming of John Wick: Chapter 4 and revealed how he had to go to extreme lengths to cast Rina Sawayama as Shimazu Akira in the movie.

Chad Stahelski talks about casting Rina Sawayama as Shimazu Akira in John Wick 4

Josh Horowitz asked Chad Stahelski about the father-daughter pairing of Hiroyuki Sanada as Shimazu Koji and Rina Sawayama as Shimazu Akira in a recent episode of his podcast, Happy Sad Confused and the director revealed that he wanted to work with Hiroyuki Sanada forever but he only got the chance now. While further talking about casting Sawayama, Stahelski revealed that he was just looking at some videos of dancers in Berlin when he stumbled upon Rina Sawayama and confessed that he had never heard a single song of hers. He said,

“For the next three days, I went down the rabbit hole. Finally, by Thursday I decided that I don’t know why but this is the anime girl in my head.”

Chad Stahelski

Stahelski further revealed that initially, Rina Sawayama turned down his request to be in the film as she countered with “I don’t act.” However, he still asked Rina Sawayama to fly to Berlin from London, and within an hour of meeting Keanu Reeves and the stunt team, she had already convinced everyone that she was the perfect fit for the role of Shimazu Akira and later agreed to do the role.

Hiroyuki Sanada and Rina Sawayama quickly bonded about their origins

Chad Stahelski further went on to talk about how he has always wanted a good father-daughter dynamic in his movies on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and Sanada and Sawayama quickly bonded and provided him with just what he was looking for. He said,

“Her[Rina Sawayama] family is from Osaka and Hiroyuki[Sanada] knows quite a bit about the Osaka accent and all that and they really bonded in life. I always wanted a father-daughter team like this pairing had been in my head for years.”

Hiroyuki Sanada and Rina Sawayama

However, this father-daughter had a very short-term on-screen presence as Donnie Yen’s character, Caine killed off Hiroyuki Sanada’s character quite early in the movie.

John Wick 4 is currently streaming on Starz.