John Wick Cast: Every Actor in All Four Chapters (and Ballerina)

The original kept its cast tight and its budget tighter (about $20–30 million). Michael Nyqvist's weary, almost sympathetic Viggo set the tone for the franchise's villains: men who know exactly how doomed they are.

Chapter 2 expanded the world to Rome and reunited Keanu Reeves with Laurence Fishburne for the first time since The Matrix — a casting wink the film leans into with the Bowery King's “somebody, please, get this man a gun” theatrics.

Parabellum is where the stunt-casting philosophy crystallised: The Raid's Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman as the Shinobi, and Mark Dacascos — a genuine martial-arts veteran — as Zero, the sushi chef who is also John's biggest fan.

The biggest and best-reviewed cast in the series. Donnie Yen's Caine — a blind assassin dragged out of retirement to hunt his friend — gives the film its soul, and Yen reportedly pushed back on early drafts until the character had one. Bill Skarsgård plays the Marquis as pure entitled menace, and direct-to-video action legend Scott Adkins disappears into a fat suit and gold teeth as Killa. Hiroyuki Sanada and J-pop star Rina Sawayama anchor the Osaka chapter.

For how the film ends — the duel, the staircase, the gravestone — see the Chapter 4 file.

The first theatrical spin-off hands the franchise to Ana de Armas as Eve Macarro, a Ruska Roma assassin hunting the cult that killed her father. It also functions as a reunion: Anjelica Huston returns as the Director, Ian McShane as Winston, and Keanu Reeves appears as John Wick in a substantial supporting role — not a blink-and-miss cameo.

Only four actors appear in every mainline chapter: Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane (Winston), Lance Reddick (Charon) and — from Chapter 2 onward — Laurence Fishburne (the Bowery King). McShane and Reddick's lobby double-act is the franchise's quiet constant; nearly every film begins or ends at the Continental front desk. For more on the man at the centre of it all, see Keanu Reeves' training file.

Charon was never written as a major role; Reddick's precise, courtly performance made him one anyway. Chapter 4 gives the character a send-off the first film never planned for — and Winston's gravestone epitaph for him, “Friend,” doubles as the cast's farewell to the actor.