John Wick 4: “Are you completely mad?” The ending worried the studio!

After hitting theaters on March 22nd, John Wick’s 4th opus has become a hit! Worldwide, the film with Keanu Reeves has already collected 137 million dollars, which is a record opening for the saga, despite the duration of 2 hours 49.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen John Wick 4, go ahead

The result of the 4th episode of the Adventures of Baba Yaga takes place in the forecourt of Sacre-Coeur. John Wick challenges Marquez to a duel through Kane and succumbs to his wounds after a final gunfight.

Bowery King and Winston attend her funeral with their dog. This ending, finally making sense for the character, wasn’t the only one discussed. According to director Chad Stahelski, the first footage considered for the final cut did not survive test screenings.

“The test screenings were a little messy about the ending. I didn’t tell them much, but we shot it to reshoot it. It wasn’t about the duel, especially the funeral sequence.”reveals the filmmaker at the microphone The Hollywood Reporter.

In this alternate ending, there was a very strong hint of John Wick surviving his final duel. In the end, Chad Stahelski and his team stuck to their first intuition. They chose the small head of Baba Yaga’s dog.

“We wanted it to be more mysterious, so you see the dog peeking at the end.”, explains the director. According to Stahelski, the Lionsgate studio wasn’t too enthusiastic when they revealed their intention to kill off John Wick at the end of the 4th feature film.

“Their response was, ‘What the hell are you thinking?’ Are you crazy?” Keanu Reeves and I looked at each other, smiled, and explained that we wanted to say goodbye properly, and that this movie should tie everyone else together.

And what better way to say goodbye to a beautiful funeral? That’s how we ended up selling it to the studio. At some point it has to end”Chad Stahelski revealed.

We did a test screening and the public rioted over the new ending shot during filming. So our first intuition was correct.

“We did a test screening and the public was up in arms over the new ending shot during filming. So our first intuition was right and the studio didn’t even bat an eye, to its credit.”– says the film director.

“That night at the cinema, we knew we had made the right decision. We all saw the reaction, congratulated ourselves and said to ourselves: we made a good film.”Chad Stahelski concluded.

But rest assured fans, we will find Baba Yaga in the spin-off Ballerina with Ana de Arma. The story takes place between the 3rd and 4th episodes of the franchise.