Fan-favorite “John Wick” character is getting a spinoff movie with Donnie Yen

Yen’s Caine was introduced in 2023’s “John Wick: Chapter 4.”

The John Wick universe is expanding once again.

Lionsgate announced that the studio is developing a spinoff focusing on Donnie Yen’s character Caine, the blind assassin who was introduced in 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4. No director is attached yet, but the franchise’s producers Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, and original Wick director Chad Stahelski will oversee the project.

“Working on John Wick: Chapter 4 was an extraordinary experience. The reason these films resonate so deeply is because, like myself, Chad, Basil and Erica push themselves to create action, fights and stunts that are not only thrilling, inventive and artistic, but also expressive of character, story and emotion. Caine is an incredible character with a haunted past, and I am excited to return to the role,” Yen said in a statement.

Caine arrived in Chapter 4 as an old ally of Keanu Reeves’ John Wick who’s hired to assassinate his friend after the High Table threatened his daughter. At the end of the movie, he teams up with Wick to defeat numerous other assassins, and is ultimately freed from his debt to the high table. In the post-credits scene, Caine finally reunites with his daughter — but Rina Sawayama’s Shimazu Akira is there, too, seeking revenge for her father, whom Caine killed earlier in the movie.

Related: John Wick: Chapter 4 review: Something Wick-ed this way comes (again)

Yen is best known internationally for leading the Ip Man film series, which follows the legendary martial artist who trained Bruce Lee. Yen also played another blind character, Chirrut Îmwe, in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and served as the primary antagonist opposite Vin Diesel in 2017’s XXX: The Return of Xander Cage.

The film will mark the third live-action spinoff in the John Wick series. The first expansion of the Wick universe came last year in the form of Peacock’s three-part prequel series The Continental, which starred Colin Woodell as Winston Scott, the owner of the titular assassin hotel played by Ian McShane in the movies.

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Next year, the first Wick spinoff movie, Ballerina, will hit theaters. Set in between John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, the film will star Ana de Armas as vengeful dancer-slash-killer Rooney, and will also feature appearances from McShane, the late Lance Reddick, and Keanu Reeves himself.

Related: Ana de Armas' John Wick spinoff Ballerina delayed a year to amp up the action

Reeves sang Yen’s praises in an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year. "He's obviously a legend in action movies and he's such a fantastic actor and artist," he said. "I really appreciated how he created the character of Caine and connected it to how he did action. It was almost character first, and then the action was an expression of character, which is a perspective that Chad and I share."

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