John Wick 4 had 'no blue print' at time of writing

John Wick: Chapter 4 screenwriter Shay Hatten revealed that there was no plan or direction when first writing the storyline of the action franchise’s fourth installment.

In an interview with Polygon, Hatten shared that because of the lack of blueprint, it gave him and his co-writer Michael Finch the creative freedom to feel their way in different scenarios for the movies.

“It’s cool. It’s really thrilling,” he began, referring to writing for John Wick 4.

“Because there’s no blueprint, you’re just like, Oh, it really is a blank page where you get to ask the natural questions: Where would John have gone off after the last movie? And then you figure it out and put it together.

“It’s in some senses tiring, because you try 100 different versions, but it’s also really gratifying when you finally start to crack an idea that eventually makes its way into a movie.”

This lack of boundaries eventually made its way to the characters and while they certainly had to revolve around Keanu Reeves’ John Wick, blind swordsman Kaine, essayed by Donnie Yen as well as the villainous Marquis, Bill Skarsgård’s character there was a number of possibilities that the movie to embark on.

Furthermore Hatten shared that he and Finch even “had our wishlist” of people they envisioned playing characters they drafted, which also affected their script.

However, because they were instructed to write with no particular actors in mind, the people who ended up in those respective roles seemingly “reshaped their characters”.

“It’s so grand and rewarding when you write a character, then you get an actor who actually understands it,” Finch said. “And I think that part of the system is that Keanu believes he is John Wick while he’s making John Wick [movies].”

“He has to, for all kinds of reasons, mostly for the physical beating he’s taking. He somehow manages to sell that to the other actors. These folks show up, and two days in, they believe they are the character, I think. That is what allows them to feel so seamless. They are owning those characters. And for us, that’s a huge win.”