Donnie Yen says his John Wick spin-off has finally started filming

Now Yen has posted to social media, confirming that filming has begun on Caine, his very own John Wick spin-off movie. “Very own” in multiple senses of the word, since Yen isn’t just starring in the film, but directing it. (He’s directed several films in other countries—and has a long track record as a fight choreographer in Western films—but this’ll be Yen’s first time directing a Hollywood movie.) Which presumably explains how he got his hands on the movie’s slate, which he showed on Instagram with the caption “Here we go…”

Caine is expected to serve as a sequel of sorts to John Wick 4, which ended (after its credits and various other fake-outs) with a scene of Yen’s blind assassin being tracked through the streets of Paris by a vengeful Rina Sawayama, who’s also co-starring in the new film. The movie will be the second film spin-off set in the Wickiverse, after last year’s Ballerina. Caine‘s actually been in development since around the time that John Wick 4 came out, but work on the follow-up stalled amidst the Hollywood strikes of 2023. Mattson Tomlin, the writer-director who’s been working with Matt Reeves on the scripts for his The Batman movies—but for connection purposes here, should be noted to have worked with Reeves as a co-author on his BRZRKR comic book—did the most recent pass on the script.