The John Wick franchise began with the titular John Wick waging a one-man war to avenger his murdered puppy. Yet as integral to the overarching plot as that moment was, the film's directors needed to fight incredibly hard to keep it in the film.

In an interview with Comicbook.com, John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad noted that Wick's puppy dying was always going to be a part of the script since its first draft. However, as the story grew, directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch began to clash with studio heads, who feared the scene would not sit well with audiences. Describing the studio's motivation, Kolstad mused "I think that they wanted to do it right, and so there were elements where [the studio said], 'Let's cut the dog out. Let's just focus on it as an assassin coming out of retirement.' That kind of thing."

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However, as Kolstad points out, not showing the dog's death would have robbed John Wick of its primary justification for all the violence Wick commits against those who wronged him. Stahelski and Leitch fought hard to keep this scene, as the film would suffer "without that dog connection and without that underlying soul and the heartbeat of that character, and also the levity it brings the character and the levity it brings the humor, it was key."

Kolstad, Stahelski and Leitch saw vindication during the original test screening, where reactions to the dog's death assured studio executives that this setup would work. "We were watching the audience. As soon as the dog died, and seeing their reaction and then seeing the siege in house, we were like, yep, we were right," Kolstad admitted proudly.

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