How Keanu Reeves' stunt double became 'John Wick's' action auteur

LOS ANGELES — For four films and counting, Keanu Reeves has fought, shot and slashed his way to hell and back again as tormented hit man John Wick, a boogeyman with a sky-high body count and a soft spot for puppies in an underworld of killers.

And for nearly 10 years, the man behind Reeves building the bespoke world of "John Wick" has been Chad Stahelski, his longtime stunt double, who co-directed the 2014 original with David Leitch before solo-helming sequels "John Wick: Chapter 2" (2017), "John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum" (2019) and "John Wick: Chapter 4," out this week.

For Stahelski, now one of Hollywood's top action directors, it's been a decade spent not just carving out a stylish new era in American action cinema, but also establishing his own creative voice. "I've used the 'John Wicks' as a comfort zone to really explore who I am," Stahelski told the L.A. Times. "The first two movies are love letters. The third one is the first time I asked, 'What's me?' And the fourth is probably the closest I've gotten so far."

In "John Wick 4," Stahelski deepens the bench with a murderer's row of action stars (Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott