The John Wick franchise has always been known for its eclectic ensemble casts, balancing esteemed character actors with serious gravitas alongside proven ass-kickers and rising stars, something that’s set to continue in Chapter 4, which is poised to start shooting imminently and head across the globe from Germany and France to Japan and back to the legendary assassin’s home base of New York City.
Ian McShane and Lance Reddick have been regular presences, and they’ve been joined at various points by Willem Dafoe, Laurence Fishburne, Anjelica Huston, Franco Nero and Halle Berry, with martial arts experts Marc Dacascos, Yayan Ruhian dropping by, not to mention the likes of Ruby Rose, Common and John Leguizamo.
The ensemble for Keanu Reeves’ latest outing is starting to come together nicely, too, with It and The Devil All the Time‘s Bill Skarsgård the latest talent in talks for the film. So far, new additions include Japanese singer and model Rina Sawayama and Shamier Anderson, who was recently seen in Netflix’s claustrophobic sci-fi Stowaway, as well as the legendary Donnie Yen, who should need no introduction to fans of action cinema.
Plot and character details both remain firmly under wraps for the time being, but it’s been confirmed that Yen will be playing an old acquaintance of the title hero, so we’ll get to see him teaming up with Reeves to barrel their way through an army of henchman, which sounds all kinds of awesome.
Given his penchant for unsettling performances, Skarsgård will likely end up as a shady villain of some description, one who will no doubt meet his demise at the hands of the underworld’s most feared figure. It may have been delayed for a year, but John Wick: Chapter 4 will hopefully be worth the wait when it arrives in May of 2022.