Chad Stahelski got his big break as a stunt double on The Matrix. He stood in for Keanu Reeves, the star of the film. The Matrix was directed by the Wachowski sisters. As Chad Stahelski worked on the John Wick series, some references from the The Matrix trilogy were bound to creep in.
While sitting for a watch along with Josh Horowitz, Horowitz pointed out a reference that he thought was courtesy of the Wachowski sisters. Stahelski then went on to reveal that while it was a sneaky Wachowiski reference as well, it was also a homage to something that the director’s father had said to him.
On the set of The Matrix, every detail was important
While speaking to Horowitz while he hosted a watch along for John Wick 4, Stahelski revealed the origin of one of the lines in the film, specifically “How do you do anything is how you do everything”.This line was delivered by The Marquis de Garmont, played by Bill Skarsgård. When asked whether the line was ripped off from the Wachowskis, Stahelski said:
“Its part Wachoowski and its part my dad. That was drilled into us- like- you gotta do everything right buddy…That is a mantra we heard everyday on the Matrix trilogy. Everything counts. There is no detail too small.”
Stahelski has taken a lot of inspiration for the films from his time in the Matrix trilogy. A lot of what went on on the set of the films influenced Stahelski to make his own. John Wick, while different as a franchise, borrows heavily from the Matrix IP in terms of imagery and writing, especially when it comes to the action that involves a lot of guns.
Chad Stahelski considers the John Wick films ‘children of The Matrix‘
Speaking to Wired, Stahelski opened up about how much the John Wick films owed to the Matrix franchise and the Wachowski sisters. He said:
“No one was under any delusion that Matrix wasn’t going to be pretty awesome. Then David Leitch [codirector of the first Wick film] and I stayed on for V for Vendetta and Speed Racer, so we pretty much got a decade of Wachowski film school. The John Wicks are definitely children of The Matrix.”
David Leitch and Chad Stahelski worked with the Wachowski sisters on a myriad of their films, learning from the best to make films like John Wick. Leitch never received a directing credit for John Wick, which he co-directed with Stahelski. The film franchise thrives on its callbacks to the Matrix series, having several easter eggs. To begin with, Reeves finds himself acting with Laurence Fishburne, who played Morpheus for Reeves’s Neo. There is also the ‘guns, lots of guns’ call back, which was first uttered in The Matrix franchise, called back in John Wick Chapter 3.
