Who was the fat guy in John Wick 4? Killa explained

John Wick 4 has been out and competing in a busy theatrical market. It had a strong start and continued to perform well enough in its second weekend as people have found the new additions to the franchise to be pretty exciting.

Chapter 4 brought in a lot of new characters, including Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine, Hiroyuki Sanada’s manager of the Osaka Continental, Shimazu, and Shamier Anderson’s tracker, Mr. Nobody, among others. But the one that stole the show in the little time he was on screen was Killa. He was truly impressive and people were left pretty inquisitive about the actor who played Killa.

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Who played Killa in John Wick 4?

Scott Adkins in Undisputed (Image via Millennium Media)

Director Chad Stahelski and Co. focused a lot on getting the cast of John Wick 4 right. And the trump card added was Scott Adkins in a fat suit, playing Killa. Most people were surprised by the high kicks that Killa was able to deliver against John Wick, and that gave away the fact that this was an actor in a fat suit.

As it turns out, it was one of the greatest martial arts actors who played Killa, and that’s none other than Scott Adkins. He is popular for all of his action movie roles in movies such as Doctor Strange, Day Shift, and Ninja, among others. He has led the Undisputed franchise from the front and has also been a stunt double for many actors throughout his career.

In John Wick: Chapter 4, he showcased his improved acting skills and card tricks while playing Killa. Delivering a performance akin to Collin Farrel’s Penguin in The Batman, Adkins proved that he certainly has a good acting range now.

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Who was Killa?

Killa Harkan in John Wick 4 (Image via Lionsgate)

Killa Harkan, a rotund and highly skilled man, was the head of the High Table in Germany. He was a supporting antagonist who operated out of an industrial nightclub and led an army of henchmen. Killa killed Pyotr, who was John Wick's uncle and the head of Ruska Roma.

So, in order to mend his ticket and get back into his family, John Wick had to take Killa down. After a long battle against Killa and his henchmen, Wick fulfilled his mission and took one of the former's golden teeth as proof of his demise.

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Scott Adkins on playing Killa

Scott Adkins on John Wick 4 premiere (Image via Lionsgate)

While speaking with Movieweb, Scott Adkins talked about his experience portraying Killa Harkan. He said,

“The process obviously takes three and a half hours of your day, and you're in the makeup chair before anyone arrives. But it's worth it to help bring this character to the screen, which I really enjoyed playing, and I'm very proud of what we did. Chad [Stahelski] asked me if I wanted to be in John Wick 4, I said, 'Of course I do, mate, what's the part?' And then he went on to tell me what it would involve.”

Adkins went on to say that he really enjoyed the opportunity and trusted in what the director wanted him to do. He continued:

"But I really relished the opportunity to disappear into the part, to get as far away from myself as I possibly could, to create the character from the ground up. I mean, it's a big leap of faith; when we started preparing the character, essentially I didn't know what the end result would be, because so much of it is dictated on the prosthetics and how he'll look."

Needless to say, the plan totally worked.

Scott Adkins on John Wick 4 premiere (Image via Lionsgate)

The actor further talked about the challenges of playing a very physical role while wearing a fat suit as he continued:

"If you're gonna be in a fat suit, you're gonna have to go big with the performance. I kept going big, and I kept saying to Chad, 'Do you think that's alright, is it a bit too much, should I pull it back?' But he was egging me on to go bigger [...] When I put the fat suit on, my initial thought was, 'Oh, it's not that bad, actually."

Adkins then stated that it was all worthwhile,

"Yeah, it's heavier, but it's okay.' But then, once you've been fighting Keanu Reeves all day, and you're under the rain machine, and you've been wearing the suit every day for like two weeks [..] Yeah. But it was all worth it. It was a John Wick movie. It's pretty hardcore. Well worth it."

Killa was arguably one of the standout characters in the entire franchise, and not just John Wick 4. Many fans would like to see another John Wick movie so that more characters like Killa can be brought into the mix.

John Wick 4 is currently playing in theaters.