Donnie Yen will return to the John Wick universe with the upcoming Caine-centric spin-off from 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4, but don’t expect the Baba Yaga himself to appear. Speaking to THR on the release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski answered whether John Wick would appear in the Caine spin-off, stating “The Donnie Yen spinoff doesn’t have the John Wick character. It’s got Donnie Yen and it’s an ode to kung fu movies”. Stahelski also stated ” If John Wick 1 was about Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin, this is about Chow Yun-fat, John Woo and Wong Kar-wai”, which Stahelski felt contextualized the spin-off “in a sub-genre of what we love”.
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Yen’s Caine debuted in the John Wick franchise as an old friend of John’s blackmailed by the high ranking High Table official Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) to hunt down John, with the life of Caine’s daughter used as leverage. Yen’s blind kung fu master and swordsman spends most of John Wick: Chapter 4 a reluctant adversary of John’s, while developing a new enemy in the form of Shimazu Akira (Rina Sawayama), whose father Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada) Caine is forced to kill on his mission to get to the Baba Yaga. John Wick: Chapter 4‘s end-credits scene showed Akira seeking revenge on Caine for her father’s death, so presumably, the Caine spin-off will involve their confrontation.
Stahelski’s confirmation that the Caine spin-off (which Yen is also set to direct) will not see John Wick appear seems likely to inspire mixed reactions among fans of the franchise. On the one hand, the newly released Ballerina is seeing Reeves return in a supporting role, and early reactions have largely praised his return, the movie overall, and the performance of Ana de Armas as the spin-off’s very lethal protagonist, Eve Macarro. This indicates that the presence of John Wick in a spin-off doesn’t necessarily distract from the main protagonist, so some fans may feel disappointed that Caine and John won’t team up again.
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On the other hand, John’s return in Ballerina (and the movie’s From the World of John Wick title) is doubtlessly in part meant to help give Ballerina a commercial leg up as a spin-off centered on Eve Macarro, a John Wick character who has never been seen before debuting in the spin-off. Caine, by contrast, already made quite a crowd-pleasing impression in John Wick: Chapter 4, so it’s easy to see why he’s in a better position to go solo in his spin-off compared to the completely fresh face that is Eve. Additionally, Stahelski’s description of the Caine spin-off as “an ode to kung fu movies” suggests that being more standalone could help sell it’s genre specificity, especially with Yen’s own extensive experience in that realm.
Donnie Yen has been a Hong Kong action star for decades, and in recent years, his international popularity has exploded. Yen first made a name for himself in Hong Kong with kung fu hits like Drunken Tai Chi, In the Line of Duty IV, Once Upon a Time in China II, and Iron Monkey. The early 2000’s saw Yen break out even more with the successes of Hero, Sha Po Lang and Flash Point, before reaching new heights in his performance as Bruce Lee’s eponymous mentor in the Ip Man franchise. Yen has since headlined some of Hong Kong’s biggest martial arts movie hits, and begun crossing into the Hollywood industry more and more with his appearances in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and most recently John Wick: Chapter 4.
In all, the John Wick universe is continuing to expand with new characters and spin-offs taking center stage and the Baba Yaga dropping into side-stories where his presence as a supporting character makes the most sense. After the action movie duo chemistry of Keanu Reeves’ John Wick and Donnie Yen’s Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4, fans may lament not seeing them team-up one more time. However, with Yen’s show-stopping previous performance as Caine and the promise of a hard-hitting kung fu flick set in John Wick universe, Caine’s next appearance is sure to be every bit as impactful as his first.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is now playing in theaters.
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