John Wick director Chad Stahelski has explained the origins of villain Marquis’ (played by Bill Skarsgård) accent in the fourth instalment.
In John Wick: Chapter 4, Marquis, as the name implies, appears to be a French aristocrat who is a powerful member of the High Table.
The character’s French accent, however, became a sticking point for some – but director Stahelski has since explained that the wonky accent was intentional.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Stahelski said: “[Skarsgård] came to me, he goes, ‘I want to do a little bit like fucked up French, like Cajun accent. And I’m like, ‘I have no idea what that sounds like.’
“Some people gave us shit a little bit because it’s not a good French accent. I’m like, ‘Guys, it’s not supposed to be French.’ Like, he wasn’t trying to be French, he’s a guy that speaks French, that’s all.”
The John Wick prequel series The Continental is set for release on September 22, which explores “the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins”. The series stars Colin Woodell as a younger version of Winston Scott, played by Ian McShane in the movies.
Elsewhere, Stahelski is set to helm the upcoming reboot of Highlander, with Henry Cavill attached for the lead role. Speaking about the reboot on the podcast, the director said they’re looking to possibly set up future instalments.
“I think we have some very good elements now,” Stahelski said. “The trick is when you have the tagline, ‘There can only be one,’ you can’t just kill everybody the first time.”
He added: “I’ll say it for you first, our story engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that, but we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows, and we’re trying to do a bit of a prequel, a setup to ‘The Gathering’, so we have room to grow the property.”
The original Highlander, released in 1986, starred Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery and Clancy Brown. It spawned several sequels and TV spin-offs, with the first sequel Highlander 2: The Quickening often regarded as one of the worst films ever made.
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