When you think of raw fighting power, Mike Tyson immediately comes to mind. The former world heavyweight champion remains known as a vicious fighter who transcended boxing to become something of a cultural reference point for rampant aggression. So infamous were his boxing skills that Tyson even appeared in Donnie Yen’s IP Man franchise, going head-to-head with Yen’s Wing Chun master in “Ip Man 3.”
And in “John Wick: Chapter 4,” Keanu Reeves’ hit man not only goes up against Yen’s formidable fighting skills, he comes as close as he can get to facing Tyson without stepping into the ring with Iron Mike. That’s because Scott Adkins based Killa Harkan’s fighting style on the boxer.
Speaking with ScreenRant, Adkins discussed how extensive prosthetics dictated his approach to action, explaining how he wanted to “keep it grounded with [Killa’s] fighting style,” while also wanting, “to sell the weight.” He added:
“It’s not just me in a fat suit. We wanted to sell that this guy is heavy and finds it hard to move. However, in his past life, he used to be a deadly assassin himself and he knows how to take down. So we came up with some kind of Mike Tyson style in the way he fights, but he can still bring it out when it counts. We didn’t want to do a bunch of triple kicks and stuff.”
Aside from the fact that it’s great to see a Tyson-esque fighting style in the John Wick franchise, it’s doubly cool to know that it was developed as a way to convey Killa’s past as a once “deadly assassin.”
