How Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Stunt Double Became the Director of the John Wick Franchise (2024)

Chad Stahelski

How Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Stunt Double Became the Director of the John Wick Franchise (1)

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How Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Stunt Double Became the Director of the John Wick Franchise (2)

The Big Picture

  • From being Brandon Lee's stunt double to directing the John Wick series, Chad Stahelski has left an undeniable mark on the action film industry.
  • The tragic death of Brandon Lee led to Stahelski helping complete The Crow using groundbreaking CGI and his mastery of Lee's movements.
  • Stahelski's collaboration with Keanu Reeves on The Matrix eventually led to him co-directing the iconic John Wick series, changing action movies forever.

1994's The Crow is an all-time classic movie, but sadly, it's also a tragic one due to the on-set death of star Brandon Lee. It was up to his stunt double, Chad Stahelski, to help complete the film. Stahelski did a lot of stunt work early in his career, but due to his connections, his life was sent on a different path. 110 years ago, he landed a gig that would alter his life forever, one not as a stuntman or even an actor. Instead, Stahelski was tasked with co-directingJohn Wick. The Keanu Reeves film led to the character becoming an instant action icon, one so revolutionary that Stahelski has directed every single John Wick film since. So just how did he go from a stuntman to one of Hollywood's most influential men behind the camera?

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How Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Stunt Double Became the Director of the John Wick Franchise (3)

R

Thriller

Action


An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters who killed his dog and stole his car.

Where to Watch

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*Availability in US

Release Date
October 24, 2014
Director
Chad Stahelski
Cast
Keanu Reeves , Adrianne Palicki , Willem Dafoe , Bridget Moynahan , Jason Isaacs , Alfie Allen

Runtime
101 minutes

Chad Stahelski Was Brandon Lee's Stunt Double on 'The Crow'

Chad Stahelski didn't meet Brandon Lee through a movie but rather their love of martial arts. In an interview with Bleeding Cool, Stahelski said, "We met through martial arts at a place called Inosanto Martial Arts Academy, which is really famous for martial arts stuntmen and all that kind of stuff. It was founded off his father, obviously, that's how we all met." Stahelski spoke of Brandon Lee being a charismatic guy who wanted to be an actor who didn't try to get famous off of the name of his father, Bruce Lee. Stahelski and Lee were friends for five years, working out together on the weekends, when the two were hired for a film that would change them forever.

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Brandon Lee was a rising name, thanks to films like Rapid Fire, when he landed the part of Eric Draven in The Crow. The movie was set to turn him into a megastar just like his dad was, and in the end, Brandon would become just that, but sadly, he wouldn't get to live to see it. On March 31, 1993, Brandon Lee was shot and killed during a stunt gone wrong on the set of The Crow. With all of Brandon's work nearly finished, minus a few crucial shots, the decision was made to go on in honor of him.

To complete The Crow, groundbreaking CGI was used to put Lee in different surroundings through unused cuts. Then there was the film's most famous shot, the one of Draven as the Crow walking up to a window as the camera looks in on him. For that scene, Brandon Lee's face was placed on the body of his double, one Chad Stahelski, who was brought in because of Lee's death. Stahelski told Bleeding Cool, "Jeff Imada, the stunt coordinator, called. He said 'Look we know you're really tight with Brandon, we've seen your reel, your move, your walk, you look like him, would you be interested?'"

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Wanting to pay tribute to his friend, Stahelski said yes; he met with director Alex Proyas, and watched film with him for two days, so he could learn Brandon's movements. Stahelski's efforts worked. Thanks to the computer effects and his mastery of Lee's movements, the shots are seamless, with it being impossible to know where Lee ends and Stahelski begins.

Working With Keanu Reeves on 'The Matrix' Would Change Chad Stahelski's Life

The 1990s also saw the rise of another actor in Keanu Reeves. He was already a big star thanks to the Bill & Ted films, Point Break, and Speed, but 1999's The Matrix took his career to a new level. The filming style of the Wachowski's left audiences in awe, giving movie fans something we'd never seen before. The Matrix was a massive success, raking in $171 million domestically alone, making it the fifth highest grossing movie of 1999.

Who should be Reeves' stunt double in The Matrix but Chad Stahelski. In an interview with AOL, Stahelski said he was still new as a stuntman when he got the job, thinking it was going to be just a little sci-fi action movie. Not only would it propel his career, but it led to Stahelski and Keanu Reeves becoming good friends, with the former even referring to Reeves as an older brother. The two stayed close, as Stahelski worked as a martial arts choreographer on Reeves' first directing effort, the 2013 film Man of Tai Chi.

Related

Will 'John Wick 5' Happen? Here’s What Chad Stahelski Thinks

"We can’t just do the same thing. I gotta do my homework. I gotta get better.”

Reeves wasn't the only one who wanted to direct. Stahelski was feeling the call too, telling AOL that he wanted "something off the normal beat" when Reeves came to him wanting help cracking a script for his next movie. Stahelski said, "It was a bit of an odd script. Puppy dies and this guy goes on a rampage." It was John Wick.

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Chad Stahelski Has Directed Every 'John Wick' Film

How Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Stunt Double Became the Director of the John Wick Franchise (10)

Stahelski gave Reeves his opinion on how to approach John Wick, recounting to AOL that it should be like Greek mythology, and a surreal, meta love letter to action films. He told Reeves, "Don't worry about making a movie, but make a myth and make a legend." In an interview with The Source, Stahelski said that he and David Leitch, who were both stunt coordinators and second unit directors, were called by Reeves and Thunder Road Entertainment with the idea of them directing the action scenes in John Wick. When they called Reeves, telling him their idea for the movie and how they wanted to not direct just the action but the entire movie, he backed them up to Thunder Road.

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Just like The Matrix did 15 years earlier, John Wick changed how action movies were made. Sure, it's filled with an immense amount of gun violence, but it's not done in the style of simple shootouts. Wick and Leitch made it art, crafting something that's akin to a beautifully shot martial arts film, replacing swords and fists with guns. John Wick was not the routine action movie many thought they were getting. The critical acclaim it received, amassing an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, led to it making $86 million worldwide on just a $20 million budget.

There have been four John Wick films over the past decade, with Chad Stahelski directing every single one, and doing it alone after the first. Each sequel did the impossible, somehow keeping audiences in awe and being bigger and better than what had come before. It's not lost on Stahelski that the John Wick quadrilogy has an immense number of gun stunts, the same type of stunts that accidentally killed his friend Brandon Lee. He explained to Bleeding Cool, "John Wick is 90% guns, firearms. A lot of the safety or the methodology we use, it came about because of that accident. It's retroactive, which sucks, it's like most f—ing things in life. No one wants to change anything until something bad happens."

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Chad Stahelski's next directing project is Highlander, starring Henry Cavill. That doesn't necessarily mean he's done with the world of John Wick though, no matter how John Wick 4 ended. As he told Collider, it's the end "for now." Whatever he does next, Chad Stahelski has had a major contribution to film over the past three decades, whether it be helping to save The Crow, doing some incredible stunt work in The Matrix, or creating a series of action films that changed the direction of a genre.

'The Crow' Reboot Is a Safer Set Because of What Happened to Brandon Lee

How Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Stunt Double Became the Director of the John Wick Franchise (11)

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It's impressive how safe the John Wick films have been with guns when it feels like nearly every minute includes a drawn-out shootout scene between Wick and some poor bad guy. It's a strategy that is not only attention getting, but extremely important for Hollywood going forward due to the deaths of not only Brandon Lee but the accidental death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021, when Alec Baldwin shot and killed her on the set of Rust with a gun that wasn't supposed to have a live round in it. Not only was Hutchins killed and director Joel Souza injured, but Alec Baldwin eventually found himself charged with involuntary manslaughter in New Mexico, before the judge ended up dismissing the case in July 2024.

This year's reboot of The Crow, directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Bill Skarsgård, has understandably received a lot of criticism. Many fans see the role of Eric Draven as sacred because Brandon Lee was not only so great in the part, but he gave his life for it. To have someone else play him comes across as insulting to his legacy. There's also been criticism of how cheap the poster looked or how odd the trailer is, and how Skarsgård looks so different from Lee in the part. Only time will tell if critics and audiences support the new vision for The Crow, but at the very least the filmmakers should be commended for the safeguards they've taken on set. There are a tremendous number of gun scenes in the reboot, which can be very awkward given what happened to Lee, but Rupert Sanders is honoring Lee's legacy and learning from his passing in the best way possible. In an exclusive with Variety, Sanders said:

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“Safety is a number one priority... So I said, categorically, ‘We will have no firing weapons on set,’ which means we didn’t have one gun that could have had a live round or a blank round anywhere near it ever, so that no projectile could go in. They’re all Airsoft guns, and some of them are just rubber or metal decoys that are functional but have no firing mechanism.”

Chad Stahelski Supports the New Version of 'The Crow'

How Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Stunt Double Became the Director of the John Wick Franchise (12)

A lot of people are against The Crow reboot, so how does Chad Stahelski himself, who was a close friend of Brandon Lee, feel about it? His answer might surprise you, as he's not offended or angry, but is actually supportive. This is because of who Rupert Sanders cast as Eric Draven. If anyone can pull it off, it's Bill Skarsgård. He is one of our best young actors and has had to stand in a harsh spotlight before. Just a few years ago, people were outraged when he was cast as Pennywise in a feature film reboot of Stephen King's It. That role was synonymous with Tim Curry, and to have anyone else play the killer clown was absurd. Instead, Skarsgård excelled by doing a different take on the character rather than being a clone of Curry. Now you can argue that Skarsgård is even better than Curry was as Pennywise and not sound like you've lost your marbles.

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Chad Stahelski worked with Bill Skarsgård on John Wick 4, where he played the villainous Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont. When asked in June by Esquire how he felt about Skarsgård being cast as Eric Draven in The Crow reboot, Stahelski said, "I think he’s my best villain ever. When I heard Bill was doing it, I was like, ‘That’s a good take.’ I knew Bill was going to bring something different. Bill’s got that ethereal nature that makes him feel out of this world, or from another planet or existence.“ He also gave more detail about his time working on the original film three decades ago, saying, “I had to sit for weeks with Alex Proyas and watch all of the footage. Face replacement was not very big at the time—you had to mimic everything.“

It's okay to be uncomfortable about a new Crow film, but if anyone can pull it off, creating a new version of a character who honors the past without mimicking it, it's Bill Skarsgård. And if Chad Stahleski himself, one of Brandon Lee's best friends, a man connected to him forever through a tragic fate, is supportive, who are we to criticize?

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John Wick is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

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