Even Keanu Reeves’ mistakes end up being successes. Apparently, the movie John Wick was supposed to be called Scorn—but Reeves reportedly kept calling it “John Wick” by accident. He mixed up the name so many times that the folks in charge of marketing just changed it to John Wick.
“The only reason it’s called John Wick is that Keanu Reeves kept referring to it as John Wick,” the movie’s screenwriter, Derek Kolstad told Comicbook.com. “Marketing was like, ‘Dude, that’s four to five million dollars in free advertising so far, so it’s John Wick instead of Scorn.’ I can’t imagine it being Scorn now.”
So, as Kolstad says, the title change was for the best—especially because the action films have become such a significant part of pop culture and Wick such an enduring character.
In the interview, Kolstad also provided some insight about what filmmaking needs to do once COVID-19 is no longer a risk.
“I think everyone out here has been a little bit rattled by what productions are going to look like, what movies are going to look like,” he said. “And yet, when you look at IP, when you look at a successful franchise, it becomes all the more important and all the more important reason to do it well.”