Chapter 4′ Had a 3 Hour and 45 Minute First Cut

As you probably know by now, John Wick: Chapter 4 is the longest entry in the gun-fu franchise, clocking in a whopping 2 hours and 49 minutes of action stunts performed by Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, and the rest of the cast. As you also may know, movies usually get bigger cuts in the editing room, and then they get shortened as the studio decides what is going to be the final runtime. For director Chad Stahelski, the first version of the movie was 3 hours and 45 minutes, not counting the end credits.

In an interview with Collider, Stahelski told our own Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub that even though he had an extra hour’s worth of footage to show us, he wasn’t too precious about letting go because he’s pretty happy with the version that we get to see in cinemas now. However, the director revealed what content was left on the cutting room floor end if we’ll ever get to see it:

“I think there’s probably like 15 minutes just for enjoyment for me, I’d probably put back in. It was more world-building. But I think the movie we released is absolutely the best version of everything we’ve tried, and we tried all kinds of different stuff just to proof check it. I think this is the best version, but there are cool little scenes that just didn’t make it. With Keanu in Berlin, he finds guns. That’s why there’s this whole Berlin part, and there’s a lot more club fight, there’s a lot more Arc de Triomphe, a lot more.

Stahelski was then asked if he thinks any of the deleted scenes would get released on the eventual Blu-ray:

I think there are some pretty funny scenes I think that we did that will probably get released at some point. I don’t know if it’ll be part of another cut, but I don’t know, we’ll see how we do.”

RELATED: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Captures $8.4 Million in Thursday Night Previews

Losing 1 Hour from John Wick: Chapter 4 Is a Good Thing

John Wick fans would certainly love to see that 4-hour version of this new installment, but we can’t ignore the fact that a runtime that long may have driven a good portion of moviegoers away. Delivering an almost three-hour cut to the public is already a risk, even though Stahelski himself and critics say that the action flick is pretty easy to sit through. So for now we’ll have to stick with this pretty generous version that so far everyone seems to be enjoying.

John Wick: Chapter 4 follows the title character as he decides to challenge the High Table in order to stop being chased around all the time by bounty hunters. Aside from Reeves, the cast also features Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Skarsgard, Rina Sawayama, Clancy Brown, Shamier Anderson, Hiroyuki Sanada, and the late Lance Reddick.

Look for a lot more John Wick: Chapter 4 coverage on Collider all weekend.