John Wick: Chapter 4 is getting a Director’s Cut, extending the longest movie in the gun-fu Keanu Reeves action franchise even further.
The fourth entry clocked in a total runtime of two hours and 49 minutes (including credits), but an even lengthier version is right around the corner. Director Chad Stahelski recently confirmed to Comic Book Movie he has almost finished work on the extended Director’s Cut.
“I’ve been working on the Director’s Cut, the extended cut, which we’ve almost finished,” he revealed. “There’s about another, I think, 10 to 15 minutes we put back in. We cut out a big chunk of Berlin, a whole character called The Frau, which is a pretty funny scene with John, and another scene between him and Tracker, a few other little action beats that we put back in.”
The first cut of the film was three hours and 45 minutes long. Stahelski explained he was conscious of the pacing when viewing the movie in post-production, but a stringent editing process meant some first-rate scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.
“There’s always stuff we take out because it doesn’t fit the pacing,” he added. “I think the stuff is all super quality, I love the choreo, I love the characters. It just didn’t – as a whole, it changed the pace of the film, and I didn’t think I could get, you know, two hour and 38-minute film in there if it felt slow. I think we got away with it because it felt driven, it felt like it was very purposeful, and I didn’t want to upset that pace. And, if it has to go, it has to go.”
Each installment of the franchise has increased in length since the original John Wick came out in 2014. That first movie sits at a runtime of 101 minutes. The second film took the series international and ran at 122 minutes, while the third clocked in a total runtime of 131 minutes.
Lionsgate already confirmed it was considering a fifth installment shortly after the fourth film’s box office triumph. The tricky thing is John Wick: Chapter 4 was largely viewed to be the final movie of the main franchise (see a spoiler-filled breakdown of the ending here).
But with or without a fifth main installment, there is still plenty more in the John Wick franchise to come. The Continental, a 1970s-set prequel series, will arrive on Peacock in September, and a spinoff film, Ballerina starring Ana de Armas, will debut on June 7, 2024.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
