Feelies: A DVD and/or Blu-ray box set for Chapters 1 - 3 includes a set of playing cards inspired by playing cards as shown in Chapter 4.
First Film Trivia
Ability over Appearance: In the original script, the character of John Wick was written with "a man in his mid-sixties" to play the role, given the title character's fabled reputation, ergo, the filmmakers had initially imagined an older actor. However, head of Thunder Road Pictures, Basil Iwanyk, decided against this, stating, "Instead, we decided to look for someone who is not literally older, but who has a seasoned history in the film world." Keanu Reeves was 50 when originally cast, making him old enough to still plausibly sell the idea of his character having a long and storied career.
Lance Reddick came up with the idea of Charon speaking with an Kenyan accent, having worked on one for a play he had just finished.
Marcus juicing vegetables in the morning when Viggo arrives was also the result of the directors asking Willem Dafoe how Marcus would start his day.
Beam Me Up, Scotty!: An odd example. People often remember Wick using Guns Akimbo, and while he does, at several points, carry multiple weapons on his person, he never dual-wields. At all.
California Doubling: The film has just one scene that isn't shot in New York City: The exterior of the Brooklyn church as seen before Wick enters it was actually shot outside the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. Due to the way this scene was shot (featuring Keanu Reeves as its only actor, both him and the church being filmed exclusively in close-ups, this moment having noticeably warmer color grading than the rest of the film), this was probably a last-second pickup shot.
Career Resurrection: John Wick's "Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back!" line was pretty prophetic for what this film did to Keanu Reeves' career. At that point, it had been in the lurch following the end of The Matrix trilogy. Starring in things like the In Name Only film version of Constantine, forgettable romantic drama The Lake House and the tepidly received remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) slowed things down before 47 Ronin brought things to a screeching halt. John Wick was seen by critics and audiences alike as a big return to form.
Creator-Driven Successor: Chad Stahelski and David Leitch were stuntmen and stunt coordinators for The Matrix films, they were excited about the script and once Keanu Reeves joined they got the go-ahead to make the movie. It subsequently served as a comparable renaissance of cinematic action films, but focusing more on athletic stunt work over the heightened visualization.
Defictionalization: The Blu-ray two pack for the first two movies included a pair of replica gold coins used in the movies, and the three pack for all three films include an oath marker. Unlike the near-exact coins, the marker has several notable differences from the movie prop, including but not limited to the lack of theAssassin's Creed symbol and (for obvious reasons) removal of the needle at the top of the marker.
Directed by Cast Member: In Zima's Latin American Spanish dub, Fabián Mejía is the ADR director as well as the voice of Winston.
Dueling Dubs: The film has three Latin Spanish dubs: one by studio DINT in Chile; one by Video Dub in Argentina; and one by WG in Mexico.
Follow the Leader: The success of John Wick has inspired a whole Sub-Genre of films that take from its neo-noir tone and gritty, stunt-focused action emphasizing long takes to show off the actors' physicality and extensive training. Some of these films such as Atomic Blonde and Nobody are even marketed as coming from some of the creators of the John Wick series.
No Budget: The film relies on practical stunts and extended fight sequences with limited cuts because they didn't have the money for elaborate special effects or even a second camera. This ended up being for the better.
Reeves did most his own stunts and fights throughout the movie. Notable exceptions include John getting hit by Kirill's Car Fu and getting thrown off the balcony in the Red Circle.
Adrianne Palicki did not use a double during Ms. Perkins' fight with Wick.
Playing Against Type: A put-upon mafia lawyer who can't stomach violence is not the kind of role you would expect to see Dean Winters playing.
Producer David Leitch also worked as a stunt performer on those movies.
Randall Duk Kim, who played the Keymaker in The Matrix Reloaded, cameos as a doctor employed by the Continental.
Mauve Shirt Kirill is played by Daniel Bernhardt, who also played Upgraded Agent Johnson in The Matrix Reloaded.
David Patrick Kelly (Charlie) worked with Stahelski on The Crow (1994) (Stahelski was Brandon Lee's body double after his death). When hearing about the film, Kelly wanted to come in and audition for a role, but Stahelski considered Kelly a friend and immediately gave him the role of Charlie.
Reality Subtext: Keep in mind that outside of John's wife dying of cancer in the movie, Keanu Reeves became the primary caregiver for his sister when she was diagnosed with leukaemia. In addition to this, Keanu also experienced the passing of his stillborn daughter in 1999, and his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Syme, in 2001. If anybody understood what John Wick was going through, it was definitely Keanu.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: The stylish facial hair that a lot of the film's mooks have isn't just a random costuming decision. It was partially done so that the film's limited pool of stuntmen could "die", trim their beards, then play different mooks in later scenes.
Sleeper Hit: It was a low-budget action thriller predicted to gross eight million in its opening weekend, with strong competition from Ouija, and its status as an old-school action flick with a star on the verge of burnout didn't help stand. Instead, it opened at 14 million and matched Ouija over the next few months: great early reviews and strong word of mouth about the well-choreographed action scenes, genuinely refreshing script and incredibly cool characters/universe building turned into a $130 million worldwide financial success with a devoted fanbase and a sequel in 2017.
Uncredited Role: David Leitch served as an uncredited co-director.
Vindicated by Cable: The film was a modest box office success, earning $43 million domestically on a $20 million budget, but it was its positive word-of-mouth and strong DVD and digital sales that propelled the film into becoming a massive financially successful franchise.
The first draft had Wick as an older man (late 60's to early 70's), and had a much lower bodycount. The lead role was written with Paul Newman in mind.
Wick's puppy was also envisioned as a much older dog in the original screenplay. Chad Stahelski decided to make it a puppy since he felt that would make its death hit harder.
In the scene where Marilyn Manson's "Killing Strangers" plays, the song was originally going to be Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down".
John's fight with Viggo was originally going to be longer, but the directors thought it would strain plausibility if Viggo was too much of a challenge after John effortlessly shot his way through dozens of mooks in the rest of the movie. An alternate ending had John shooting Viggo dead during the finale, but this was deemed too anti-climatic.
The Car Fu sequence at the end was originally going to be a larger chase, but there wasn't enough budget for it.
The film was reportedly originally titled Scorn, but Reeves kept referring to it as John Wick in interviews, so the director decided to embrace the free marketing and retitled the film.
Word of God: According to Directors Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch in "HONEST REACTIONS: John Wick Directors React to The Honest Trailer!", there's an agreement between the city's police and criminals and assassins where as long as the latter two keep their killings and battles between themselves and don't kill civilians and police, the police will leave them alone. Hence why Jimmy visiting John at his home doesn't look surprised when he sees dead bodies in his home and not arresting him.
They also confirmed people asking about the "worth" of the gold coins were asking the wrong question; the gold coins aren't so much currency as they are a way to show that you're "in the know" about this criminal underworld, so a single gold coin can get you a drink at the Continental just as much as it can get you a cleaner to stow away a dead body.
According to Michael Nyqvist, Viggo was born and raised in the slums of Kiev as a nobody, and slowly tore his way to the top of the Russian Mob.
According to Keanu Reeves, John Wick is ex-military and was trained as an assassin by Marcus. The former is more than just speculation, since the motto for the 3rd Marine Battalion can be seen on his back during his shower scene. This was overwritten by plot developments in the sequels.
", there's an agreement between the city's police and criminals and assassins where as long as the latter two keep their killings and battles between themselves and don't kill civilians and police, the police will leave them alone. Hence why Jimmy visiting John at his home doesn't look surprised when he sees dead bodies in his home and not arresting him.