John Wick: Why you almost chose not to kill your dog

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick films, spoke about the use of guns on set and why real firearms shouldn’t belong there. The fourth part, starring Keanue Reeves as John Wick, will soon be in cinemas, and spin-offs are even planned.

Chapter 4 shows that the project is a complete success. For Chad Stahelski and his colleagues, however, the first part was a real risk, as the interview reveals. One almost deleted an iconic key moment from the film, which is largely responsible for the plot of the first part and the following films.

Why the dog was almost left alive in the first part of John Wick

The Story of John Wick (buy now ) is about a man who has lost everything – twice. The death of his dog, which was given to him by his wife, is what tips the scales, allowing him to send everyone responsible for it across the Jordan in a fantastically staged manner. As director Chad Stahelski reveals in the interview, the scene was rewritten several times and almost didn’t end up in the film.

“The killing of the puppy was written out just as often as it was written in,” explains Stahelski. “We had to exaggerate it so much, take it so extreme, to show that it’s absolutely symbolic.”

Could have ended careers

Stahelski adds that they felt that killing the dog would end their own careers, such was the outcry from the audience. He continues: “You have no idea how much stress [Co-Regisseur] dave [Leitch] and because of that I had. We’ve risked loans, a home mortgage, and everything else. [Produzent] Basil Iwanyk dumped his company… And then comes the day when you realize we’re doing all this and killing a puppy? I thought we’d never recover from that.”