JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 is almost 3 hours long, but it was almost 4 hours in its first cut

The next sequel John Wick: Chapter 4 is, of course, highly anticipated, as the John Wick franchise is among the most popular in movies these days. Fans are excited to see each film, as a director Chad Stahelski up the ante with every action and star Keanu Reeves pushes the limits to new heights with each story.

But these films and their expanding tradition are not made quickly and easily. In fact, the upcoming fourth installment in the series, running at 2 hours and 49 minutes, is actually largely condensed from its original run.

In an interview with IndieWire, director Stahelski and the film’s editor, Nathan Orloff, Stahelski explained:

“Our first cut was three hours and 45 minutes, and so sense like three hours and 45 minutes. We were like, oh, we’re so screwed.

Stahelski and Orloff knew their initial cut had too much space, so the editor stripped away everything that wasn’t essential, explaining:

“Just zip, zip, zip. I went through a passage where whenever someone repeated an idea that he had already expressed, I cut it. No repeating ideas. It’s a very linear story, so there wasn’t a lot of rebuilding or rearranging that we could do. It was just sifting through what we didn’t need.

Of course, this kind of compression is easier in theory than in practice, as Stahelski found that it was not possible to cut any of the film’s 14 individual action sequences without affecting the whole.

“You’ll never know if a five-minute car scene or a 10-minute car scene is good until you watch the whole movie.”

Sometimes Stahelski and Orloff found that cutting a scene too short made the film feel longer because it wasn’t the right pace, which resulted in many, many re-watches of the entire film to find just the right balance.

Stahelsky said:

“My newsroom probably hates me because even if we only took 30 seconds of something, I’d make everyone review the movie. This is the only way to know you have the right pace. You hear that shot in the movies all the time because they were tearing it apart and not seeing it as a whole. The last thing you want to do is treat it like a bunch of parts.

Whatever they had to do, I know they did a great job. THE John Wick the film franchise is a well-oiled machine at this point, and they’ll go the extra mile to make sure each installment does the entire story justice. John Wick: Chapter 4 will be released in theaters this Friday, March 24.