The highly anticipated action sequel John Wick: Chapter 4 will add several big names to the already stacked roster, with martial arts superstar Donnie Yen arguably the most exciting addition among them. Now, director Chad Stahelski has teased what audiences can expect to see when Donnie Yen faces off with Keanu Reeves’ master assassin. To the delight of action fans everywhere, it will include pistols and samurai swords.

During an appearance on Collider’s Directors on Directing Panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Stahelski could barely contain his excitement over bringing action movie legend Donnie Yen into the world of John Wick. An excitement that no doubt will be shared by audiences when the movie hits screens next year.

“So, I’m standing in between, you’ve got Donnie Yen and you got Keanu Reeves, and you’re touching hands with all of them, blocking out stuff. And you’re like, ‘Holy shit. Those are really real. So, it always comes down to, I can do the Donnie Yen triple kick. I can do all this, but you also want to do something different. So, you start sitting, you come at it from character, and you have a lot of discussions with the guys going, ‘Okay, Donnie is amazing at this. Keanu is amazing at this. They’re both great actors, so let’s lean onto that, and let’s do something we haven’t seen before.’ So now, that Donnie Yen with a sword and a pistol and Keanu with a samurai sword and a couple of pistols and throwing an AR-15 and a glass mirror room with Japanese artifacts. And yeah, throw in a couple of dogs, and let’s see what happens."

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While they may throw down on screen, Donnie Yen had nothing but wonderful things to say about Keanu Reeves and his time filming John Wick 4. “I have to take this opportunity to (express) my utmost appreciation for Chad (Stahelski) and Keanu (Reeves),” Yen said last year. “They’re just lovely men, gentlemen, they’ve got a big heart. Keanu’s got a good soul, a good man. Chad is also a very good man, very knowledgeable. People think of him as a brilliant action guy, he’s not (just that), he understands films. He’s a film librarian, he knows what’s going on. I’m having the best time working with them in this movie, (more) than any of my previous Hollywood movies, so I wanted to express my appreciation.”

“Well, again, the 18-year-old me would have been like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe I’d do this.’ That’s, I’m not going to lie, I giggle. I’d make jokes all the time. It’s like Donnie would come up with a question, I’d start giggling. He’s like, ‘What’s wrong with you, man?’ I was, ‘I’m directing Donnie Yen, what do you think I’m doing?’”

The recent trailer has revealed some of what John Wick: Chapter 4 will involve, as well as giving us just a taste of Reeves versus Yen. The sequel will see Wick go to war with the High Table following the events of 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, at the end of which Wick found himself pretty beaten and bloody. Well, he’s all patched up now and ready to continue his never-ending vendetta.

Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick as Charon, Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins, and Clancy Brown, John Wick: Chapter 4 is set to be released on March 24, 2023.