One of the two locations that producer/star Keanu Reeves was hoping to explore in John Wick: Chapter 3 was Tokyo, Japan.
Our friends at ThatHashtagShow reported that Japanese action star Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine, Westworld, The Last Samurai, Avengers 4) would be potentially taking the role of the main villain in Chapter 3.
Yet, if they are planning on hiring Sanada it’s hard to imagine the Yakuza/Japan won’t play a large role here. Giving us the first hint that Japan will be featured in the film after all and we suspected Sanada could be part of The High Table representing the Japanese Yakuza.
Well, we can now confirm that they are indeed casting Japanese actors for Chapter 3 (backs up the Sanada hiring) and could suggest filming might take place there as well (along with a couple of other locales we’ve mentioned).
Although, we don’t have location confirmation for Japan just yet.
We were able to recently confirm that Chapter 3 will be using the working title Alpha Cop when returning to film in Montreal (doubling for NYC like in Chapter 2). It’s already assumed Chapter 3 would be way more globetrotting than the previous two films as Reeves also wants to explore Jerusalem as well which could be doubled by Jordan/Morocco.
However, it remains to be seen if these new locations will be set in the present with Wick on the run or potential flashbacks to his past, there was talk the film could ultimately reveal some actual details from John’s cloak-and-dagger past.
There is an assumption that official casting reveals are coming up very soon.
Filming is expected to begin around April 26th with Lionsgate slating it’s release date for May 17th, 2019.
SOURCE: OMEGA UNDERGROUND