The importance of a series like Warrior in the framework of American television may not be understood after the success of Everything at Once Everywhere. It won seven Oscars last spring, including best picture, with a cast that, with the exception of Jamie Lee Curtis, was entirely Asian, and was a success at the box office. These kinds of phenomena distort our perception of what is usual or normal in the entertainment industry: an American series with an entirely Asian cast, to be exact, was a brave bet in 2019.
Hahn Nguyen from IndieWire called it a Chinese version of Steven Knight's Peaky Blinders or Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. In Rolling Stone, Alan Sepinwall appreciated that she did not lose sight of “the sociopolitical reflections of today” although her main objective was to show splendid fights. Maureen Ryan highlighted in IGN that Warrior was “efficient, energetic and enjoyable” and “American history brought to life with great force.” And Matt Zoller Seitz considered in Vulture that the way the creative proposal contrasted with the often white vision of American television was stimulating.
The development of Warrior, furthermore, was history. Bruce Lee, one of Hollywood's most influential martial artists, had thought up a television series in 1971 called Ah Sahm, about an expert in this combat tradition in the Old West, when the borders of the United States were still expanding. However, no one bought the project, partly because of the risk of casting an Asian-American in a leading role and partly because of his accent. He could share the spotlight on television or act as a supporting role, as Longstreet or The Green Hornet demonstrated, but not be the absolute protagonist.
The project was left in a drawer until his daughter Shannon Lee picked it up in 2015 and convinced the Cinemax channel, part of the HBO conglomerate, to produce a series following her father's vision. Justin Lin joined as producer. This is how a story about the Tong Wars (that is, the rivalries between different factions of the Chinese community in the United States) came to light in 19th century San Francisco from Ah Sahm, a martial arts expert who came from China with the mission of finding his sister, sold to a criminal organization.
The reviews, as I said, were positive when it premiered in 2019. It was appreciated that a television channel specialized in action and series with a male profile gave an opportunity to a story rooted in the Chinese-American community, with actors from this minority in the main roles such as Andrew Koji, Dianne Doan, Olivia Cheng or Jason Tobin, and that it was well done, understanding the action potential of martial arts.
After the first season, Warrior began to be produced for HBO Max, the Warner Bros Discovery platform linked to the Cinemax channel, which made two more seasons, the second broadcast in 2020 and the third in 2023, saying goodbye in August. But, instead of renewing for a fourth, the studio has canceled the series and has made an unexpected decision: sell the broadcast rights non-exclusively to Netflix, which starting in February will be able to offer the three seasons produced to date to their subscribers.
This means that Warrior will not abandon HBO Max but above all that it can find a new audience if Netflix bets on it and gives it visibility in the catalog. It is becoming a new constant in the company's business model: taking advantage of series that have only a few episodes produced (in this case, thirty) to retain subscribers who prefer to binge-watch. And, if it works, it is not ruled out that Netflix could produce new episodes. Let no one leave Warrior for dead.
