We have seen Keanu Reeves slaughter countless enemies as the titular antihero in the John Wick franchise, and every single one of those people would all still be alive if not for what happens to that poor puppy in the original film. In the movie, Wick plays a former hitman living a quiet life in retirement following the death of his wife. Before her passing, she arranged for him to receive a beagle puppy as a parting gift. Sadly, a group of thugs break into his home soon after, beating John to a pulp and going so far as to kill the dog before making off with his car.

Of course, those criminals would learn soon enough that they chose the wrong person to mess with. The puppy's death pulled John Wick right back into the life of an assassin, in which he stayed after extracting his revenge upon the people who harmed the animal. After two sequels, the story continues with the soon-to-be-released sequel John Wick: Chapter 4. That's a lot of bodies John is leaving on the ground over the course of these four films, and with a fifth installment in the works, we know he's still not done yet... and it all goes back to the death of that poor puppy.

Speaking about the dog's death in a new interview with THR, director Chad Stahelski recalls how the filmmakers struggled over whether to include the scene. He reveals that it came very close to getting cut, noting they'd gone back and forth on it several times. There was a level of concern that going down that route may have been a step too far. At the end of the day, Stahelski says it had to be done as John Wick is the kind of film that must go to the extreme. Even so, the filmmakers still worried about how it would turn out in the end. From the interview:

"Killing the puppy was written out as many times as it was written back in. Ultimately, it’s mythological. We had to go so overboard, so extreme to push it to let you know that it was absolutely symbolic. We’re not trying to hold the realism. We want the viewers to know we’re having a laugh. But you don’t even know how much [producer David Leitch] and I stressed about that. Holy shit, we were risking credit cards, a house mortgage, everything. [Producer] Basil Iwanyk put his company up. And then you have that day where you realize we’re doing all this and we’re killing a puppy? I thought we would never come back from it."

Related: John Wick 4 Director Says Sequel's New Dog Has a Big Role to Play in the Movie

John Wick Has a New Furry Friend

John Wick Dog (1)
Lionsgate

In John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, a new dog was introduced. Stahelski previously teased that this canine will have a big role in the story for John Wick: Chapter 4. He couldn't divulge details, but regaled in a Collider interview that more scenes with the dog in the film meant having dogs on the set for more than five months.

"This time we learned a lot from last time, but we wanted a little bit more out of this one in specialty stuff," he said.

John Wick: Chapter 4 will be released in movie theaters on March 24, 2023.