The Bowery King

The Bowery King
Full name	Unknown
Aliases	The Bowery King
Gender	Male
Details
Nationality	American
Occupation	Crime Lord Data Trafficker
Affiliations	John Wick (presumably deceased) The Soup Kitchen
Relationships	John Wick's Pitbull (pet)
Status	Alive
Out-of-universe
Portrayed by	Laurence Fishburne
Appearances	John Wick: Chapter 2 John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum John Wick: Chapter 4 John Wick: Chapter 5 (announced)

"Oh, my dear. Tell me, do you know what the Bowery is, Adjudicator? Do you know what happens when I wave my hand? No, there will be no replacement for me on the throne. Because I am the throne, baby. I am the Bowery! I am all that you deign not to look at when you walk down the street at night. The Bowery is mine. Mine alone."

—Bowery King to the Adjudicator^[src]

The Bowery King is the powerful head of The Soup Kitchen, an underworld intelligence network in New York City disguised as a homeless shelter. The Bowery King controls a network of soldiers and spies hiding in plain sight, posing as those at the very bottom of society.

History

Backstory

The Bowery King's hobo symbol.

"I am the way into the city of woe, I am the way into eternal pain, I am the way to go among the lost. Before me there were no created things. But those that last forever as do I! Abandon all hope you who enter here. You are now in the presence of the MOTHERFUCKING KING!"

—The Bowery King

Little is known about the Bowery King's past. At some point in his life, he was targeted by John Wick but managed to survive despite being cut twice by Wick.

Soon after, he took control of The Soup Kitchen, a homeless shelter, where he created an underground empire. Recruiting a large number of beggars, vagrants, and panhandlers to act as his eyes and ears in the city, and training pigeons to act as messengers, he established a large intelligence and data network across New York without using the Internet or phones, thus remaining anonymous and untraceable. He then informally became an adjutant to The High Table, bound under their rules but operating independently.

John Wick: Chapter 2

The Bowery King's first meet with John after retirement.

""As I Live And Breathe! John Wick. The Man. The Myth, The Legend.""

—The Bowery King to John Wick

After Wick barely evaded Cassian and multiple assassins who were after the $7 million bounty set on John by Santino D'Antonio, he dropped a coin into a cup of one of the panhandlers in the subway in a desperate request for help. The panhandler proceeded to hide him under his pile of garbage from a group of assassins disguised as janitors while shouting conspiracy theories and obscenities to dissuade the assassins from taking interest in his belongings, before dispatching them.

The Bowery King at his throne.

The panhandler brought John to the Soup Kitchen where he meets with the Bowery King, who was tending to his pigeons. Wick, unarmed and with few other options, requested firearm support from Bowery King. He was at first amused with the notion that John would ask him for help, but reluctantly provided him with a single handgun with seven rounds, one per million of the bounty.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

The Bowery King encounters The Adjudicator.

"Well, sometimes you gotta cut a motherfucker. Avert your eyes, my sweet. The king is dead. Long live the king."

—Bowery King^[src]

Immediately after Winston Scott announced that John has been deemed "excommunicado", the Bowery King contaceds the Continental Hotel staff and announced that he will oblige with the High Table rules and that John was banned from using the services of the Soup Kitchen.

Soon after, while tending to his pigeons again, he was visited by The Adjudicator. After a casual small talk about his business, they pulled out a firearm, identifying it as the same one that the Bowery King supplied to John and informing him that he has broken the rules of the High Table. The Adjudicator announced that he is to resign in a week and receive punishment for his actions. The Bowery King angrily rebuffed them, lamenting his status and the fact that he himself has risen up to his position, and that at the moment when he provided John with a firearm, he wasn't excommunicated. However, his reasoning fell on deaf ears; nevertheless, he angrily retorts that he will not step down.

The Bowery King during the raid of the Bowery.

The next day, a group of Japanese assassins led by Zero, hired by the Adjudicator, arrived at the Soup Kitchen and proceed to murder most of his men without much effort. The Adjudicator arrived on the rooftop where, again, Bowery King is tending to his pigeons. Impressed by their determination, he pledged his loyalty to The High Table and accepts penance for disobeying them. As punishment, Zero maimed him by brandishing his sword and slicing him seven times (one for each bullet he provided to John) across his torso, stomach, and face, leaving him horribly injured and near death, before they leave.

John and The Bowery King on his second throne.

After John was shot by Winston and fell off of the roof of the Continental, he was rescued by one of the panhandlers working for the Bowery King, and John, badly injured, was brought to him. Acknowledging his injuries and comparing them to his own, the Bowery King asked John if he is angry with the High Table. After John replied yes, the Bowery King reveals that he was preparing to wage war against the High Table for unfairly punishing him and killing his men, revealing that he lied to them about being loyal and stepping down from his position and that he only took the punishment because he was forced to do so.

John Wick: Chapter 4

The Bowery King preparing for John with his suit.

""Long live the king! Had mine made years ago""

—The Bowery King

Months afterwards, John continued to hide underground with the Bowery King until he began his war with the High Table by killing The Elder, the only individual "above the Table." During this time, the two men developed an amicable relationship and became true friends.

The Bowery King visits Winston Scott.

Following the destruction of the New York Continental and the murder of Charon, Winston met with the Bowery King to set up a meeting with John. The Bowery King was dubious of Winston's motives given that Winston shot John the last time that the two met, but Winston insisted that he didn't have any other choice as the High Table held all of the cards. With the looming threat of Vincent Bisset de Gramont, the Bowery King eventually agreed to arrange a meeting between John and Winston at Charon's grave.

The Bower King and Winston in support for John's upcoming duel.

As John prepares for his duel for his freedom from the High Table, he met with Winston and the Bowery King in the Paris subway, surprised to see the latter out of New York. To aid his friend, the Bowery King provides John with a new bulletproof suit as well as a TTI Pit Viper to fight his way through the assassins between John and his duel, both of which John is immensely grateful for and prove extremely useful to him. With the time of the duel approaching, the Bowery King gave John and Winston a ride in a motorboat to as close as he can get John, chiming into their conversation about grave epitaphs by stating that he chose "Long Live the King" for himself a long time ago. After dropping John off, Winston and the Bowery King depart, and he is not present at John's final duel and death.

Upon returning to New York, Winston and the Bowery King buried John next to his deceased wife, giving John his requested epitaph of "Loving Husband." John's friends visited his grave with the Bowery King having taken ownership of John's dog. The Bowery King openly wondered if John went to Hell or was reunited with his wife in Heaven before he and Winston left.

Personality

The Bowery King mocking and laughing at The Adjudicator.

"Bowery King: Okay. You made your point. You have earned my fealty. Matter of fact... I'm gonna shove so much fealty up your ass it's gonna come spilling out of your mouth."
The Adjudicator: "You had your chance."
Bowery King: "Well, since you see it that way, I guess it's time I told you to climb down off your High Table and go fuck yourself!"

—The Bowery King to the Adjudicator^[src]

The Bowery King is a mysterious person, with his real name unknown. He spends most of his days on the rooftop of the Soup Kitchen, tending to his pigeons. The Bowery King is an unexpected, but undisputed possible threat to the High Table, with his informant army, fully supplied weapons, and "information" of carrier pigeons, all operating from a soup kitchen. He is the ruler of his own underground kingdom. Even in the presence of the High Table, the king enjoys mocking and laughing, yet he is also a fearless leader. He is willing to supply John Wick with goods such as ammunition and information. His attitude resembles that of kings in the past, such as boasting about how powerful they are, providing needs, and asserting their right to reign. All in all, he is charismatic and genial, while also ruthless and efficient.

Abilities

The Bowery King with his birds.

"No one sneaks up on me anymore, thanks to you. I am all-seeing and all-knowing."

—Bowery King to John Wick^[src]

• Master Networker: The Bowery King placed most of his men, mostly beggars, and panhandlers, on strategic transport hubs in the city (near large squares, the Grand Central Terminal, or in the subway), where they serve as his eyes and ears. Since all of them masquerade as beggars, many playing the role of mentally challenged homeless people, they are largely ignored by the general public, allowing him to operate in relative secrecy. The Soup Kitchen also serves as his headquarters, where, under the guise of being a homeless shelter, he constructed a vast complex of tunnels and escape passages, allowing his men to travel discreetly across Manhattan without much notice. Unlike Winston, Sofia and many others, who were elected by The High Table to their positions, he created his own position and offered his services to the Table, allowing him broader access to the criminal network. This has positively affected his status.

Gallery

The Bowery King.

The Bowery King's cuts

The Bowery King with Tick Tock Man and The Adjudicator.

The Bowery King with John Wick's pitbull.

The Bowery King with a suit for John Wick.

The Bowery King with John Wick and Winston in John Wick: Chapter 4

The Bowery King character card in the John Wick 4 Steelbook.

The Bowery King tarot card

Trivia

• Chapter 2 and Parabellum are the first films in which Lawrence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves co-starred together since The Matrix trilogy.
• Fishburne himself asked Reeves for a chance to receive a role in the film after seeing and enjoying the first film and immediately accepted the role upon reading the script.
• The Bowery King is a reference to medieval times, where it was common for beggars (equivalent to modern homeless), would be organized under a 'beggar king' and controlled a kind of underworld within cities. These beggar kings are believed to have maintained large networks of intelligence gathering, as people would ignore the presence of the beggars, and talk more openly around them. That information then being sold on to thieves in the city. This same situation is referenced in a number of games, most notably the Elder Scrolls series.
• During the intro of John Wick: Chapter 4, The Bowery King quoted the poem written on the entrance to Hell in Dante Alighieri's Inferno's Canto III of the Divine Comedy.
• The Bowery's hobo symbol means ''safe camp''.
• The Bowery King's hobo symbol can be seen in the pages of Mr. Nobody's journal.

External links

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