John Wick: Chapter 4 was originally supposed to hit theatres last month, but due to the pandemic, the fourth installment to the Keanu Reeves-led franchise has yet to begin production. However, fans can expect Reeves and crew to get back at is soon, especially since casting announcements continue to pour in. Laurence Fishburne is returning as The Bowery King, Rogue One‘s Donnie Yen is expected to join the cast, and IT star Bill Skarsgard is also reportedly joining the film. Other additions include singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama and Wynonna Earp‘s Shamier Anderson. Yesterday, rumors started to circulate that Wesley Snipes would be showing up in the movie, but those rumors got shot down. Now, Deadline is reporting that Westworld and Mortal Kombat star, Hiroyuki Sanada, is the latest actor to join John Wick 4.
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According to the report, Sanada is joining the production, which will film in France, Germany, and Japan this summer. Sanada rose to fame in Japan when he starred in The Twilight Samurai in 2002. Sanada has also appeared in Speed Racer, The Wolverine, Avengers: Endgame, Army of the Dead, and more. The actor is repped by CAA, Lighthouse Entertainment, Axon Entertainment, and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton.
“The way Keanu and I approach it with our writing team is, ‘Look, we have ideas, but it’s not like I’m working with two sets of writers on two movies,’” director Chad Stahelski previously told ComicBook.com last August. “We’re going to write a really good number four. If a really good number four feels solid to Keanu and I, we’ll make that one. That doesn’t mean we won’t plan on a five or start writing five, but we want to make sure we have a solid story.”
He added, “The worst thing you can do is ‘I got five ideas. I’m going to put two in number four and put three in number five,’ I don’t want to try and stretch into two movies. I want to have solid ideas. So we’re attacking number four with everything we have. If there’s anything left on the table, we’ll fully attack number five.”
It was previously planned for a fifth movie to be shot back-to-back with the fourth film, but that plan has since been altered. The John Wick franchise is also getting a TV expansion in the form of the spinoff series The Continental, which follows the infamous assassins world hotel. Shay Hatten and Micahel Finch are handling the John Wick 4 script, which will mark the first of the John Wick films to be made without the franchise’s creator Derek Kolstad.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is currently scheduled to hit theatres on May 27, 2022.
