Yaz showed up in the first “Extraction,” where he and his sister help Tyler Rake extract the kidnapped son of an Indian drug lord. But for the sequel, both Nik and Yaz play a slightly larger role, especially in terms of Russo’s attempts to contrast the brutality of “Extraction 2” with some heartfelt moments. Rather than just double down on action, the writer, along with director Sam Hargrave, tried to flesh out the supporting characters this time, with Yaz’s death ultimately designed to not only up the emotion but motivate Nik going forward.
Hargrave recently spoke to Collider, where the stunt performer turned filmmaker recalled how he “went back and forth,” on who to kill, explaining that, “You have to lose something, at least to raise the stakes for the third act.” And before poor Yaz was put in the crosshairs, it seems Hargrave and Russo were toying with some other potential deaths. As the director explained:
“We played with some different characters but ended up with Yaz being the one to choose because we thought that helped motivate two beloved characters, which was Tyler Rake and Nik Khan. People are huge fans of Nik. She has garnered such a following from these movies that we wanted to make sure that she was serviced as well, meaning that her character had some really meaty stuff to hold on to. So we figured we landed with Yaz because it did two for the price of one, basically. We have the guilt that Rake feels of bringing them into this, his close friend and brother basically, and then the actual blood brother of Nik dies, so that she’s conflicted, like, what is she doing here?”