This Is The John Wick Killer Who Really Deserves A Prequel
There’s plenty of excitement among the John Wick fandom with The Continental, a serialized telling of the early stories of Ian McShane’s Winston, scheduled to release in a couple of days. However, while we’re excited about the series release, we have to point out that the rich universe of John Wick features other characters that really deserve a prequel as well. So, today, we’ll discuss another character from the films that might’ve made better sense as a prequel project: Caine.
Caine has a very rich backstory, which the movie barely touched upon.
Our initial pick was The Elder, a mysterious and all-powerful leader of the High Table, also known as “the One who sits above the Table.” His depictions as a man of Arabic descent played well into the fact that the first organized assassins, called Hashshashins, originated from Persia and Syria.
And yes, the Assassin’s Creed video games are based on the historical Hashshashins. So, our decision was based on the rich history of the Order of Assassins, which would fit nicely into the John Wick narrative and explain the origins of the High Table.
However, while our love for Winston, John Wick, and Assassin’s Creed isn’t in short supplies, the fourth cinematic installment in the franchise introduced new, more dangerous threats for John to address, including Donnie Yen’s Caine, who is arguably the best assassin in the whole movie.
Many even argue that he’s better and more skilled than the eponymous hero himself. Especially when you take into consideration that he slices and dices through people in the movie while also being completely blind.
A prequel story could focus on Caine’s origin story, various transgressions he made against the Table, and how he honed his skill to avoid relying on eyesight.
Caine’s talents become rather obvious when he hunts John across the Osaka Continental while slaughtering Koji’s henchmen in the movie’s first act. He eventually kills Koji but displays his true skills when he wounds Koji’s daughter, thus eliminating her as a threat without actually killing her. He’s that good and that skilled—in fact, he’s able to sense everything, just like Marvel’s Daredevil, but seemingly evil.
The fact that he’s able to show restraint and control only reflects the massive extent of his skills. Throughout the film, he even killed many who opposed John, mainly because he had to kill John Wick himself. This includes many henchmen belonging to Killa—who is portrayed by Scott Adkins—all without a single scratch. His movement and precision also might imply that there’s more to him than just pure skill, as he’s able to move like he still has his eyesight.
But Caine’s journey in John Wick culminates with him getting the best of John. Of course, John is already pretty beat up, but that scene also shows Caine’s proficiency with various arms, including small arms, good knowledge of human anatomy (the gut shot was intentional), and yet again, his level of skill—being able to maintain that level of spatial awareness without a major sense required to do so effectively isn’t something anyone could pull off.
Many even argue that Caine’s better and more skilled than the eponymous hero himself.
But it’s precisely thanks to his shot that John lives long enough to kill the Marquis and earn both his and Caine’s freedom in the process. Gut-shot victims, if untreated, may suffer for days before succumbing to their wounds. So, it’s pretty obvious that Caine’s shot was intentional, and John’s sigh of relief reflects that—even John knew that he wouldn’t be able to match Caine if the blind assassin wanted him dead.
But all of this indicates one thing: Caine has a very rich backstory, which the movie barely touched upon. It’s evident that he’s better than John; we know that he tried to leave the assassination game, but the High Table didn’t allow him, and that he lost his eyesight trying to protect his daughter—probably from the High Table as well. A prequel story could focus on Caine’s origin story, various transgressions he made against the Table, and how he honed his skill to avoid relying on eyesight.
In fact, the depth of this underlying narrative could be so vast that Chad Stahelski might have yet another trilogy on his hands, or even better, a quadrilogy, if he chooses to leverage Yen’s talent and the foundations for a potential mega-hit that were laid in John Wick: Chapter 4.
