Can you imagine Die Hard star Bruce Willis as John Wick instead of Keanu Reeves? It almost wasn’t a fantasy, because as it came out on the tenth anniversary of the series, the action star was once the top candidate for the role.
The revelation came from none other than John Wick co-director David Leitch.
John Wick reveal: Bruce Willis was supposed to get the role instead of Keanu Reeves
David Leitch and co-director Chad Stahelski run the Los Angeles stunt company 87eleven, which has been helping Hollywood productions with their expertise since 1997. Among other things, they were instrumental in training Keanu Reeves for The Matrix as a kung fu action star. At that time there was already one early script for the first John Wick film in circulation, as Leitch recalls in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter:
We were first introduced to the script by our then manager, Kelly McCormick, who is now my wife and producer. She had us Basil Iwanyk and Peter Lawson in Basil’s company [Thunder Road] presented to perhaps do second unit work on the script. So that was the first time we read it and I believe that Bruce Willis was intended for the role at the time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t revealed why the role didn’t end up going to the robust, bald man, but to the much wirier, agile Keanu Reeves. Maybe it was just time passing before the final casting. Leitch and co-director Chad Stahelski revised Derek Kolstad’s script several times at this time, including increasing the number of kills from 15 to 84 and fleshing out the word building. The film was only financed with Reeves on board.
Sadly, Bruce Willis had to end his successful acting career several years ago. The reason was one Aphasia diagnosiswhich makes it difficult for those affected to speak and understand. At least Keanu Reeves, who is also in the sequel, is still doing well John Wick: Chapter 5 should play along, but that will still be a long time coming.
We will probably see the Neo and Wick actor in the cinema beforehand in the long-awaited sequel to the demon thriller Constantine. The sequel starring Reeves as the DC Exorcist is finally in the works after almost 20 years.