When you want to add a sense of legitimacy and an irreplaceable cool factor to your action franchise, you throw in Donnie Yen. If you want to take full advantage of the legendary Hong Kong action star's talents, well, you'll hire him as director of your action franchise. Leave it to the John Wick property to potentially combine the best of both worlds its upcoming spinoff, centered on Yen's scene-stealing ultra-cool assassin Kane from John Wick: Chapter 4 .

It easily takes the title for the most exciting news of the day, thanks to Collider. In a recent interview with the outlet, Yen promoted his work as both director and lead on his latest film, The Prosecutor, which is set to hit select theaters later this month. But naturally, the subject of "John Wick" came up. Yen went on to drop the big bombshell on interviewer Steve Weintraub, who revealed that he heard directly from John Wick director Chad Stahelski that there had been discussions to put Yen in the director's chair. So what did the actor have to say? As he explained:

"That's right. I think both the fans and the studio want this to happen, and we'll see (...) I can only tell you this much. But yes, we are talking, and we are going to talk intimately, we will see what happens."

For those who may not remember, the blind assassin Kane began the film as an antagonist on a reluctant mission to deliver Vic's head on a platter ... only to end up as an ally, completing one of the coolest arcs of any character in the entire franchise . The post-credits scene, featuring Kane and the revenge-seeking killer Akira (played by pop sensation Rina Sawayama), seemed to represent a potential standalone film. Now, we've got our most significant update yet—and one that almost single-handedly makes the project feel even more of a must-see event.

While we wait to see if a fifth John Wick movie remains on the cards or not (since the last update, it seemed to be vaguely "in development", (although there's been little movement on it since then), fans can at least look forward to another highly anticipated film eventually becoming a reality. If these talks continue to progress and result in an actual deal, it's safe to say we could be in for the most exciting part of the franchise yet. There was already a streaming prequel series centered on Ian McShane's enigmatic hotel manager Winston Scott (I reviewed The Continental for /Film and it was very, uh, not good) and there's another spinoff set to arrive later this year in the form of Anna de Armas' From the World of John Wick: Ballerina . But both pale in comparison to a Yen-starring, Yen-directed Kane movie, if you ask me.

The fact that there is anyone Of course, it speaks to the hype surrounding this mystery spinoff how much effort Donnie Yen put into Kane's character and how warmly it was received by the audience after the release of "Chapter 4". In an interview with Collider, Yen went on to describe how he's well aware of the pressures of adding something as beloved as the John Wick movies and has no intention of letting anyone down:

"(...) I bear the responsibility as well as the pressure that I don't want to destroy the franchise. I try to do my best to bring something fresh to the franchise itself. I don't want to break expectations. I try to do my best for the fans, as always."

Fans looking to get a sense of Yen's directorial prowess have their fair share of Chinese-language films to check out from the late 1990s and early 2000s, but one title to watch out for will be the upcoming film Prosecutor ", which Yen claims "really represents the kind of director I am." The film hits theaters in limited release on January 10, 2025. Stay with /Film for more updates!