Is Winston Really John Wick, Senior?

Is Winston really John Wick, Senior?

[I must take a moment here to clarify something: my writings are currently based on the two films themselves, as well as the additional information I’ve been able to find via audio commentaries, bonus features, interviews, etc. But one key source I have NOT yet used is the comics, which came about after the films themselves. The comic series is considered canon and delves into John’s origins some, so it’s possible that they address some of the things I’ll bring up here and in other posts. But the collection isn’t yet in my possession, and I’ll be working without whatever insights they may contain. That clarified, let’s go!]

SPOILER WARNING: This contains information about both the first and second films, so if you’ve not watched those yet, I highly recommend doing so, both to avoid spoilers and simply because they’re bloody fantastic films!

The John Wick Universe is a rich, deep, mysterious one. The franchise makes clever and fascinating use of visual storytelling and an approach that is simultaneously minimalist and layered. It’s definitely a fun, visually striking picture and can be enjoyed for that alone, but delving deeper proves to be really rewarding.

And the series takes the approach of dropping us into a world that feels like it has a long, extensive history. You get the sense that it began before you were born and will be there long after…as long as they finally get it through their heads to stop screwing with our protagonist, that is.

In any case, watching the films tends to bring up tantalizing questions about the Underworld society as a whole and also about individual characters. 

And one of those intriguing characters is Winston. He is somewhat shrouded in mystery, and I expect it’ll largely stay that way. As Derek Kolstad noted:

You allude to a world, but you never show all of it, because as soon as you show the shark, it’s not as cool.

Or, to put it another way:

But Ian McShane’s half-joking comment aside, we do know a few things about this character: He’s the capital-M Manager of the New York branch of the Continental Hotel. He’s very unflappable and watches the ebb and flow of events with this calm, elegant patience and grace. 

And most notably, he has a particular soft spot for John.

There are more things I will list about Winston elsewhere [article to come], but for the purposes of this post, we’re focusing on that last one. 

There are a couple of interesting and pretty plausible theories I’ve seen floating around about Winston: One is that he is the father of John’s beloved wife—the late Helen Wick—and the second is that he’s instead the father of Mr. Wick himself. 

Now, either of those seems possible enough. 

But I not only think that neither of those is the case, I also strongly hope neither is, because I feel that we’re better off for it. And the two are closely tied together—I think having Winston be unrelated to John serves the story better, and that for those reasons the creative crew has chosen to go that route.

I’m going to begin by addressing the theory that Winston is actually Helen’s father, making him John’s father-in-law. 

On the one hand, I do think this would be a better option than having Winston be John’s father, as the issues it would bring are milder (this will become clearer as I discuss the second theory). 

However, I think it’s still the less likely of the two. Looking at what we see in the films and also can learn via behind-the-scenes material, it seems like Helen is quite unconnected to the Underworld on a personal level, and was more or less a typical civilian. While she and John live a somewhat isolated life—and happily so, as they focus on each other and don’t feel the need for a lot of companionship beyond that—Helen still has more ties to regular life than John does. 

The directors revealed that Helen is an award-winning artist and photographer, and also that the people you see at the funeral and aftermath—not counting Marcus—are Helen’s family members, etc.

Based on what’s shown and stated in the films, it seems like John’s remaining social connections mostly stem from his assassin life (rather than from his life prior to that), that he has been out of contact with the Underworld during the years of his retirement, and that while they’ve been keeping tabs on the legendary assassin, they don’t usually interact with him anymore. 

Between that and what we know of Helen’s background, it seems safe to say that Helen is a civilian and her social circle and family are mostly from that life. And even if Helen was given up for adoption or her parents split when she was at a young age, I feel like if she was Winston’s daughter, there would still be more of a presence of the Underworld in her life. 

Though perhaps one could argue that John himself provided enough of a presence and that Winston may have given his blessings because he felt that John was just the man to keep his daughter safe. 

But there’s another issue here, and I think it’s the strongest argument against Winston’s being John’s father-in-law. Observing the way Winston interacts with Jonathan, and the way he discusses the loss and the marriage itself, the sense you get is that Winston is close to John, but not so much Helen. Winston doesn’t come off to me at all as a man grieving the loss of his child. His primary concern instead seems to be for Jonathan and his wellbeing. I do believe that Winston cared about and appreciated Helen because of her importance to John and the great marriage they evidently had. But I don’t think he was especially close with her, and definitely not to that level; he’s closer with Jonathan. 

And bear in mind, we can’t simply explain it away by arguing that Winston is the type who’d still seem pretty calm after losing a child, the way Viggo Tarasov was about losing Iosef. Things like the warmth he showed during his very first scene in the franchise and the pain and regret in his eyes towards the end of the second film show that Winston does give his feelings more room to show. I believe that if Helen were his daughter, we would’ve seen a distinctly different picture from him than we have thus far. 

Now, what of the question of being John’s father instead? 

The chief reason that I don’t think this happened, and that I strongly hope they don’t go this route later on, is that the relationship between the two men is in a way more significant and meaningful if they’re not related.

Think about it.

One pretty universal thing about family is that even if you don’t like them—indeed, even if you outright hate them and they are genuinely despicable people—it’s common that you’ll still cut them at least a touch more slack than you would someone who had all the same qualities and traits and the same social relationship to you except for the blood tie.

Guy may be an idiot, but he’s still your cousin, so you try to be a little patient, a little nicer, help him out—if for no other reason than family pressure. Even if you personally don’t much care for the family tie and think the person has disqualified themselves from deserving to cash in on that, there will likely still be other family members to chide you and bring up, “He’s/She’s family!”

Indeed, even in cases where someone’s been horribly neglected or abused by their family, there can still be a major and surprising difficulty in doing things like cutting off contact, because even if the bond itself wasn’t truly there or was only one-sided, there’s still a natural desire there for family—to have a mother and a father, maybe siblings, too. 

But the point is that a blood tie tends to give you some amount of automatic credit that’s then just multiplied or divided by other factors of merit, like the healthiness or unhealthiness of your actual relationship with that person. 

And for me, that’s why it actually means more if Winston has no blood tie to John. It means that John’s position of favor with him is fully a matter of having been earned. There isn’t the preexisting switch that would be triggered by having a blood tie. John is instead someone who has earned a great deal of warmth and fondness from Winston by virtue of who he is rather than what. 

One thing you’ll noticed in the John Wick world is this broad sense that Jonathan is not only widely feared but also widely respected and even liked. So it’s not just a matter of how deadly he is alone. There’s also something about the man himself that even people in an inimical role to him seem to have regard for. 

One moment that often comes to mind for me is when Wick and Perkins are in a hallway in the Continental and he has just knocked her out after fending off her initial attack and turning the tables on her with a gunpoint interrogation. Another assassin by the name of Harry hears the commotion and comes out with his weapon at the ready. But once he realizes it’s John, he promptly relaxes, asks if everything’s alright, and leaves John to his business. Like the other guests, Harry’s an assassin in his own right, so it’s not like this is just some scared civilian who’s too frightened to pursue the matter. And he actually had the drop on John, because the legendary assassin had put down his weapon and was in a position where Harry could’ve gotten a shot off before even an opponent like Wick could respond.

But Harry simply inquired after John and then accepted the situation without demanding any further explanation of why the man was in a fight in a place where violence was very strictly off-limits. To me that indicates that he trusted John enough to assume that whatever he was doing must have been legit and justified. 

That’s just a snippet of how John fits into that world. 

For me it’s a lot more meaningful to think that the sort of father-son (or perhaps uncle & favorite nephew) relationship was born simply by virtue of how Jonathan endeared himself to Winston, and also how Winston endeared himself to Jonathan. It’s a two-way street, and John has clear affection and respect for the elder man.

If John were Winston’s son, it would be easier to at least partially shrug things off and attribute them to the familial bond. Heck, look at the case of Iosef Tarasov! Being the boss’s son put Iosef, a spoiled, arrogant brat, in a position status-wise that he was probably neither deserving of nor qualified for.

Mr. Wick of course is in a whole other universe from the aforementioned punk and is an instead an absolute legend who’s shown us he deserves his reputation and then some. As Abram Tarasov notes in the second film, the stories we’ve heard of Wick have, if anything, been watered down.

But even so, I love this thought that Winston and Wick are more “found family” to each other, especially since what we’ve learned thus far suggests that John didn’t have much in the way of normal family besides Helen herself. 

My above reasoning is also why I find the idea of Winston’s being a father-in-law less objectionable, even if also less likely. The relationship between a person and their in-laws, especially the mother- and father-in-law, is one known for often being challenging, though it can also be a warm and lasting one, as well. And while under the circumstances Winston might cut John some slack for Helen’s sake, there’s also the counterpoint of how hard it is for a father to feel that any guy is worth being with a woman the elder will always think of as his darling little girl, no matter how old she gets. 

So it would still definitely be significant for Wick to have earned the kind of affection he clearly has—Winston truly likes the guy and treats him like family, not as someone merely being tolerated for Helen’s sake.

But all that said, I don’t think the creative team has decided to go either route, and I think we’re actually better off for it.

And while this doesn’t as deep a reason as the other factors, this is also worth noting: I think the father thing would simply be too cliché and predictable! One thing really appreciated about the Wick franchise is how it’s brought something that, even while having nods to classic and retro elements, also feels more fresh and new and has avoided various cliché issues. (And while some view Helen’s role as itself being a negative trope especially as female roles go, I see it instead as a very beautiful thing.)

The “I am your father” concept worked great in Star Wars, which I am quite fond of without a doubt. But if they pull that with John and Winston’s friendship, I’m going to be quite annoyed and exasperated, because that would mean that they had the potential to do something more unique, interesting, and significant, and instead tossed it out for a reveal that may not even carry as much weight or mileage as they were hoping. And even if the audiences overall take it well, I would still see it as a poor choice from a creative/storytelling standpoint. 

But if my theory about John and Winston is correct, I applaud the team for the approach they’ve chosen. And either way, I’ve very much enjoyed watching the two interact and can’t wait to see both in the third installment—both separately and jointly.