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Donnie Yen’s Caine has completed principal photography, bringing the latest John Wick spinoff to the end of a production route that began in Budapest and continued in Hong Kong. Yen confirmed the wrap in mid-July, after directing and starring in the film centered on the blind assassin he introduced in John Wick: Chapter 4.
Viewed alone, the Budapest shoot is a compact production update. Placed alongside The Continental and From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, however, it reveals a more substantial pattern. Budapest has now figured in all three live-action John Wick spinoffs to move into production, gradually becoming a recurring European platform for the franchise beyond its Keanu Reeves-led main series.
A Franchise Returns to Familiar Ground
The relationship began at full scale with The Continental: From the World of John Wick. The three-part prequel series, filmed in 2021, used Budapest and ORIGO Studios to recreate a heightened version of 1970s New York. ORIGO supplied stages, a backlot, workshops, equipment rentals and production offices, allowing the filmmakers to build much of the series’ period environment within one production ecosystem.
The result depended on more than Budapest’s ability to double for another city. As Budapest Reporter previously noted in its coverage of a press roundtable with producers Erica Lee and Basil Iwanyk, the production “built almost everything,” including extensive interior sets and a redressed New York backlot. Iwanyk admitted that he had initially doubted whether Budapest could convincingly carry the setting, before the finished environment changed his mind.
That experience established the city as a place where the franchise’s stylized architecture could be constructed at scale. The Continental required an entire corner of the John Wick mythology to exist independently of the films, with its own version of New York, period detail and action language. Budapest was not simply a background; it formed part of the production method.
Three Productions, Three Different Roles
Ballerina returned to the region under different circumstances. Len Wiseman’s film conducted most of its original principal photography in Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic, but additional photography took place in Budapest in early 2024. The work included new action material overseen by franchise architect Chad Stahelski alongside Wiseman, with Norman Reedus among the cast members involved in the Budapest shoot.
The distinction matters. Whereas The Continental used Hungary for broad world-building, Ballerina brought part of its action refinement to Budapest. The city’s role was narrower, but it came at a critical stage: the production was adding material intended to align the spinoff more closely with the physical precision and visual intensity associated with the John Wick films.
Caine represents a third model. Production began in Budapest in April before moving to Hong Kong, creating a two-continent shoot that reflects the film’s position between an established American franchise and Yen’s own background in Hong Kong action cinema. Yen reportedly pressed for the Hong Kong portion because Caine’s personal history and origins are part of the story, even though much of the film is set in Europe.
This division gives the locations distinct creative functions. Budapest provided the base for the film’s European production leg, while Hong Kong allowed Yen to bring the character into a cultural and cinematic environment more closely connected to his identity. It is a more purposeful use of international production than treating one city as a substitute for another.
Infrastructure Rather Than Coincidence
None of these productions used Budapest in exactly the same way. Together, though, they demonstrate the range that keeps major international projects returning: controlled studio space, adaptable backlots, period streets, experienced crews and the capacity to support complex action work.
It would be too strong to describe Budapest as the John Wick universe’s official European home. The main films have built their global geography across locations including New York, Paris, Berlin, Osaka and Jordan, while Ballerina remains primarily a Prague-shot production. Yet the repeated Hungarian presence across the franchise’s three completed or active live-action offshoots is difficult to dismiss as coincidence.
For Caine, that history also provides a stable production framework for a film designed to shift the franchise’s perspective. Yen has said he wants to create “the most definitive martial arts-infused action film ever made,” while grounding the spectacle in the character’s competing obligations to violence and family. Rina Sawayama is returning as Akira, continuing the confrontation set up at the end of Chapter 4.
No release date has yet been announced. But as Caine moves into post-production, its Budapest-to-Hong Kong route offers a concise picture of how the John Wick universe is evolving: expanding through filmmakers and locations with their own action traditions, while returning to production centers capable of translating its highly controlled visual world from one chapter to the next.
