John Wick Co-Directors Say ‘No Other Person’ Could Play the Character Than Keanu Reeves (Exclusive)

You can’t have John Wick without Keanu Reeves.

10 years have passed since the action thriller premiered in theaters, but co-directors Chad Stahelski, 56, and David Leitch, 48, still feel that Reeves, 60, is the only person who could take on the titular role.

Despite the movie’s humble beginnings, it has spun off into a massive franchise. To date, four action-packed movies have premiered along with the spinoff prequel series The Continental, various video game adaptations and a comic book series.

There is plenty to come, including 2025’s Ballerina series and an anime movie.

Even with the different iterations, Stahelski and Leitch firmly believe that Reeves played a crucial role in the success of their franchise.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE timed to the 10th anniversary of the first movie, Stahelski poses the question: “Could you have done John Wick without Keanu?”

Quickly, he answers the question himself, “No, not the way you see it.”

Stahelski continues, “The stoicism that John Wick shows is really a big part of who Keanu is. You gotta see Keanu on set. I know everyone hears the stories, but he is always there early. He is always the first one there [and] the last one to leave.”

He shares that Reeves, who executive produced the fourth movie in 2023, is “curious” about every part of the production process, but notes he “does not try to overproduce or overbear or course-correct. He just wants to know.”

Stahelski adds that the actor “loves the property, loves the character, loves the work,” before noting, “That kind of involvement – that kind of love – you can’t help but insert your own DNA.”

Stahelski also mentions that the John Wick movies contain inspiration from his own appreciation for anime, manga and Asian cinema — which he shares with Reeves.

“What you are seeing in John Wick is everything I love,” he says. “It’s the colors, it’s the music. The studio was incredibly lenient with what I wanted to do. I’m sure, if you asked the studio, ‘Did you think he was going to pull off dog attacks or Keanu on a horse?’ Or ‘Do you think he was going to pull off a stair fight for 15 minutes?’ They’d probably go, ‘No, but he figured it out.’ ”

When it comes to working with Reeves, Stahelski appreciates that he is “working with a collaborative partner that loves the same things.”

“That’s why he has an anime Western Samurai woo-ja vibe to him,” he says. “That’s not just a cast member coming and reading a script. That’s a cast member who loves all that stuff, and he’s bringing that love and putting it into the character.”

Leitch, who co-directed the film but did not receive the proper credit due to a Directors Guild technicality, agrees about Reeves embodying the infamous character.

“There really is no other person that could play John Wick,” he tells us. “He brings, obviously, the passion, the physicality, and there’s just this undeniable emotional quality to him, where you feel for him and he pulls at your heartstrings.”

In retrospect, Stahelski says his biggest accomplishment in making the first movie was “finishing it” and making a sequel. But when it comes to the milestone anniversary, he says that he has not been counting down the days.

“It’s pretty flattering, you know. We’re in on the joke. We get it. We can’t believe we’re still here. It’s a big thing just to have fans of the franchise and of the property, and people that love Keanu and love the character, and the fact that we get to keep living in that world and doing it, it is pretty cool.”

Meanwhile, Leitch is proud to have left a notable stamp on pop culture. “I’m most proud of being part of creating a character that is so iconic in pop culture and that people connected with it so emotionally and viscerally,” he says. “I’m really proud of the character that we got to create.”

Honing in on a specific moment in the first movie, written by Derek Kolstad, Stahelski recalls the hesitancy “other people” had towards introducing their titular character with a provocative storyline that involves a mob killing his dog, who was gifted to him by his late wife. The violent action thus sets him off on a murderous, revenge rampage. 

“The Hollywood trope is don’t kill the dog,” Stahelski explains. “But that was the reason we took the gig. When Keanu sent me the original script, that was the thing that stood out.”

Being a dog lover himself, Stahelski says, “That hit me as soon as I read the script, going, ‘Oh, wow, they got the balls to do this.’ We talked about Keanu and for all of us, it was a no-brainer.”

In the context of the story, the slaying is not included solely for shock value. In fact, Stahelski found that it was a valuable way to explore the different stages of grief.

“It wasn’t just about killing a puppy,” he explains. “It was about killing an opportunity to grieve somebody you love. So you see how it kind of stacked. It wasn’t about the puppy. It was about the puppy and the wife and the gift… So that tickled our intellect a little bit.”