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But do we? I mean, John Wick is a retired hitman, how youthful can you be when you've already retired? I imagine hitman retirement program starts early that standard Social Security retirement age, but still. He's also "the one you send to kill a Boogieman" - you can't get this kind of reputation when you're in your 20s, and you can't get a collection of friends (most of them in high places and respective ages) unless you led a long life establishing these relationships. Youthful Joh Wick would not make absolutely any sense. As an action hero, we want him to be agile, powerful, unstoppable - but I don't think youthful fits the mold.
In general, the trope of "flawed hero" that is being used in action movies a lot, pretty much precludes the action hero from being too youthful. He must have some well-developed flaws, that make him relatable - all-powerful flawless young Greek god is just not going to get sympathy. He must have some established position to show how good he is - but then he'd lose this position in the middle of the movie due to the actions of his enemy, and to make it a true loss, it has to be something better than a night shift manager in McDonalds. He should have some friends and resources that he would rely on to come back and prepare to the ultimate showdown. He should have some developed relationships, romantic and platonic. He should have some strongly held principles, which are going to be tested. And so on, and so forth.
(And, of course, as you correctly mentioned, you want the actor's face to be recognized by everyone when you put it on the poster)
I mean, this is not the only action movie formula that's in use, and obviously the young adult movies would have to use a different one usually, but it is a very frequently used one. So I think saying we always want the actors to look youthful is not exactly correct. We want them to not explicitly old (unless the role demands it), but I don't think it's the same thing.
Nobody breaks the mold here a bit by making you think "who is this schlub?" before the plot really kicks off. And I think it's better for it — you then find that he has the friends in high places, and the strongly-held principles, etc.
I liked that one. Of course, given that they had Odenkirk, it was expected. Again, Odenkirk being almost 60 (and to be honest, he didn't look that "youthful" way before that either) does not detract from the fun.
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