Warrior Producers Clarify How Bruce Lee Influenced A number of Characters

Through the opening credit of each episode of Warrior, the Max collection reminds viewers that it’s “based mostly on the writings of Bruce Lee.” The late display icon got here up with the idea for the present that we now know as Warrior again in the course of the peak of his profession, pitching the present as a starring car for himself. That did not work out, however Warrior is now an acclaimed hit many years later, and Lee’s fingerprints are everywhere in the present. Not solely does his daughter, Shannon Lee, govt produce the collection, however a number of characters are modeled after Lee’s character and profession.

Ah Sahm, the present’s lead protagonist, is the character Lee created for himself to play. Andrew Koji’s character shares plenty of similarities with Lee, however so does Li Yong, the quiet however highly effective Lengthy Zii officer performed by Joe Taslim. Govt producer Jonathan Tropper just lately instructed ComicBook.com how they used Lee as a foundation for a couple of character.

“We really wrote the position of Li Yong for Joe Taslim,” Tropper started. “And Justin Lin, our EP, was very struck at how Joe may transfer like Bruce Lee and Joe had a sure essence that felt in some methods much more like Bruce Lee than Andrew Koji. as a result of Andrew Koji is six foot one and received lengthy limbs and on no account embodies the physicality of Bruce Lee in these respects. And I feel Justin put the thought into all of our heads that we do not have to restrict Bruce Lee to Koji.

“And there are moments once we do. We undoubtedly have Joe, definitely in his battle motion and generally simply in his cocky increase of an eyebrow or tilt of his head, we undoubtedly have Joe embodying a few of that Bruce Lee swagger as properly. And we predict there’s sufficient to go round if anybody else needs a bit, too. And it is actually necessary.”

Tropper went on to say that it was necessary at first to ensure Koji wasn’t tasked with merely imitating Bruce Lee when enjoying Ah Sahm. Sure, that was the character Lee created for himself, however they wished it to be distinctive to Koji for this collection. 

“It was actually necessary once we had been grounding Koji within the character to ensure he understood we’re not asking him to mimic Bruce Lee,” he defined. “‘We do not need Bruce Lee imitation. We wish you to search out the character.’ As soon as he discovered the character, he then decides how you can incorporate sure actions, sure moments, sure winks on the digicam, sure issues that really feel very Bruce Lee. And so each he and Joe have alternative ways of doing it, however they’ve equal declare to it.

Huge Motion in Warrior Season 3

Chatting with ComicBook.com forward of Season 3, star Jason Tobin hinted at a giant and “emotional” battle that followers are going to be actually enthusiastic about.

“I’ve a favourite battle scene from Season 3, however I do not really feel like I may speak a lot about it,” Tobin instructed us. “However I can clarify to you why I loved it a lot, and hopefully when the viewers sees it, they will know what I am speaking about. There’s been many, many nice scenes, many nice battle scenes that I’ve accomplished on Warrior, however what I notably loved about Season 3 was that we would all accomplished this earlier than. We’re working with the identical groups. There is a shorthand for working collectively, and it was simply one other degree of collaboration the place it wasn’t simply the choreography, it wasn’t simply the writing, it was the appearing and placing all collectively in order that the battle scene is greater than the sum of its elements.”

“After which attending to work with the actors as a lot because it was attending to work with the choreographers, the stunt performers,” he added. “It was actually a melding of all these completely different departments and actually when filmmaking is at its greatest, in my view.”

New episodes of Warrior arrive on Max each Thursday.