‘Warrior’ brings Bruce Lee lore to Cinemax with series premiere

The following article is spoiler-free. Proceed with reckless abandon! 

Cinemax’s new series Warrior is a victory in nearly every sense of the word. Not only is it great TV, it also rights a wrong that has lingered over the legacy of cultural icon Bruce Lee for nearly half a century. 

In the wake of 2018 representation successes like Crazy Rich Asians and Killing Eve, it’s frustrating to imagine the legendary Bruce Lee being rejected from studios on the basis of race. But in the early 1970s, that’s exactly what was happening.

According to those close to Lee at the time, the master creator and philosopher, arguably at the height of his career, approached studio after studio with a treatment for a television series he had tentatively titled “Ah Sahm.” It told the story of a heroically skilled Chinese immigrant, written to be played by Lee, battling his way through the late 19th-century San Francisco Tong Wars.

Combining Lee’s knowledge of Asian American history with his passion for Western-style adventures, the pitch seems like a promising one. Unfortunately, according to Lee’s daughter Shannon, he was turned away, informed an Asian American actor could not “carry the series.” Soon, a similar project starring a white actor hit the small screen and went on for three successful seasons.

For many creators of color marginalized by Hollywood’s historic prejudice, stories like this one end here. But not for Bruce Lee. In a triumphant turn of events, the story of “Ah Sahm” premieres this Friday as Warrior, Cinemax’s latest and greatest 10-episode drama, and Lee’s daughter’s newest executive producing credit.

In an interview with Mashable, Shannon Lee joined her fellow executive producers Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious franchise) and Jonathan Tropper (This Is Where I Leave You) to discuss how Bruce Lee’s lore came back to life and what viewers can expect from Warrior.

“When I started running the business, I came into possession of all of the archival materials,” Lee, who serves as both the CEO of the Bruce Lee Family Companies and the chairwoman of the Bruce Lee Foundation, says on Warrior‘s development. 

“Justin just called me up one day out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, is this true? Does this thing exist? And do you know where it is?’ And I said, ‘Yes! It’s in my office in a box.’ So we got together and looked through it. I think he thought it was pretty magical. And he said, ‘We ought to make this the way your father intended, let’s make this reality.'”

“If at any point, we feel like we have to compromise, then let’s rather not make it.”

Soon, Jonathan Tropper was commissioned to join the project, taking over as the series’ primary creator. Tropper created dozens of characters to flesh out the world Bruce Lee had created in his eight-page treatment, but remaining loyal to the source material was paramount.

“It just felt so organic and impassioned,” Lin adds. “We just all kind of sunk up and decided, let’s go and try to bring this to life — but let’s make it the right way. And if at any point, we feel like we have to compromise, then let’s rather not make it.”

“I feel like we had really set the table and then we had to cook the meal,” Tropper explains. “We were given a piece of history that I knew nothing about, that clearly Bruce Lee knew a lot about, and I had to go study up on that. The themes of immigration and being the other and xenophobia and racism built into the American immigration system, that was all there. And then the main character and his journey, his conflict was there. Then it was about populating this world with other characters that could make it come to life.”

As Tropper describes it, Warrior is composed of three worlds: Chinatown, the Irish working class, and the San Franciscan aristocracy. To cast the diverse project, the three embarked on a global talent search that took them everywhere from Hong Kong to London. Along the way, they found a wealth of Asian actors — including star Andrew Koji who plays Ah Sahm — ready to deliver killer lead performances and champion Lee’s legacy.

“On a bigger scale, it’s creating opportunities for talented Asian American or American-speaking Asian actors to thrive and to be able to showcase their talent,” Lin notes. “Hopefully, we will do well here, but I’m also excited to see what they will do beyond this project.” 

When asked if she believes her late father would be proud of Warrior, Shannon Lee answers in two parts.

“I think that this was a part of his mission in life, to tell these authentic Chinese stories and to have Asian people playing the roles of Asian people,” she says of the series’ representative importance. “So in that regard, I think he would be thrilled that this extension of what he started is coming into reality.” 

But also, as Lee points out, aside from being a marked triumph for Asian representation and a victorious surprise ending to one of her father’s most upsetting snubs, Warrior is just really great TV.

“My father would love the sort of visceral quality of the show, the emotion of the show, the tone, the tenor,” she says, beaming. “He would not want to shy away from realism or any of that. It was all part of what he believed as a filmmaker himself. I think he would be extremely proud. He would love it.”

Warrior premieres on Cinemax April 5 at 10 p.m. ET.
Becoming Warrior, a docuseries on the making of Warrior, is available on YouTube now.