The Hiroyuki Sanadaissance continues with Hiroyuki Sanada joining John Wick: Chapter 4
Hiroyuki Sanada from Mortal Kombat, Avengers: Endgame, and Westworld is taking on Keanu Reeves
Film News Hiroyuki Sanada
If Hiroyuki Sanada isn’t a household name, he certainly should be at this point. He’s been in so many big movies and big TV shows that he’s basically a one-man franchise, and if he stays at the pace he’s been holding for the past few years, he could someday threaten Samuel L. Jackson’s title as the highest-grossing actor in Hollywood. Sanada played rich guy Bly Tanaka in Army Of The Dead, he played Scorpion in Mortal Kombat, he played robot samurai Musashi in Westworld, he played Akihiko (the yakuza boss who gets killed by Ronin/Hawkeye) in Avengers: Endgame, he played Shingen in The Wolverine, Dogen on Lost, Oishi in 47 Ronin, Mr. Musha in Speed Racer, Kaneda in Sunshine, Ujio in The Last Samurai, he’ll be in Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train, and also he had recurring roles on shows like The Last Ship and Extant. And that’s not even counting the decades of big roles in Japanese movies like The Twilight Samurai and Ringu! We’re saying the man fucking works, and when he works he usually plays characters who tear shit up.
Now, he’s going to continue to tear shit up in John Wick: Chapter 4, appearing alongside Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Rina Sawayama, Laurence Fishburne, and his 47 Ronin co-star Keanu Reeves. That comes from Deadline, which says Sanada has signed on to the fourth John Wick movie in “an undisclosed role.” However, internet rumors have suggested that he’ll be playing “Mr. Watanabe,” who was teased by Laurence Fishburne last week as “the heart and soul” of the movie, and longtime guests at The Continental might even recall that Sanada was originally cast the villain in John Wick: Chapter 3 back in 2018. It sounds like that version of the film would’ve been totally different, though, with John Wick: Chapter 2's Common and Ruby Rose reportedly set to reprise their roles, so he’s not necessarily going to play the same person who he would’ve played in that movie, but he is well-suited to play someone who gets on John Wick’s bad side.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is starting production soon and will be released in May of next year.
16 Comments
Why is this guy always cast as a ninja or samurai or some shit, somebody please let this man be a politician or pilot or anything else
pretty sure part of it is that he has a unique skillset making him even more ideal for those roles (vs. other people that aren’t that skilled with a sword, etc.). doesn’t mean they can’t cast him as something else, but if the decision is between a samurai and a normal guy… well, it makes sense that they’d cast someone with the right skills to play the samurai vs. some other guy who doesn’t have the same training/abilities.
Mr. Sanada to helpess movie-going wallets: “GET OVER HERE!!”
He also appeared in Giri Haji a show that started off well, like it started off like a Japanese/English take on Keanu Reeves’ Siberia only to really chicken out and have the worst ending ever. Like they didn’t know if they wanted a second series or not so the final episode’s a ballet sequence which isn’t how it was supposed to go.
He’s been working forever, too. He first appeared as a child in a Sonny Chiba movie way back in the ‘60s (that’s before Chiba even did martial arts in his movies), but his real career was launched in 1978 with the Yagyu Clan Conspiracy movie (also known in English under the incredibly generic title of “Shogun’s Samurai”). So that’s over 40 years of acting.
As if I weren’t already morally obligated to see this in a theater.
I read the title as “Hiroyuki Sakai” at first and thought John Wick 4 was gonna be even more awesome.But Sanada is good too.
I would love your version. Fancy hit men hotels have to have fancy restaurants, right?
You think he only knows how to use knives to julienne carrots?WRONG MOTHERFUCKER. He will brunoise your fucking aorta.
He also had a small role in Minions, making him part of the Despicable Me-iverse.
Hiroyuki Sanada, for me, is one of those actors who is a human seal of approval, like Christoph Waltz or the late Sir John Hurt. If he’s in it, it can’t possibly suck.
Mortal Kombat is literally dogshit. HE’S fine in it, but he’s in about 15 minutes of it.
Agreed on all 3, are you familiar with Outlander, the movie not the tv show.
I’ve not seen either.
I know his name in 47 Ronin is a real surname, but it always made me laugh when someone yelled “oishiii!” Like a schoolgirl eating a strawberry crepe.
Yes, cast Hiroyuki in everything!