The third season of Warrior is over, and I am on pins and needles. That’s because this series, about gang wars on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco in the years following the U.S. Civil War, is one of the best TV shows I’ve watched in years, but it has a very low profile. I can’t think of a show more deserving of a renewal, but the odds seem long on this one.
That said, the show has faced these kind of odds before. The first two seasons of the show ran on Cinemax, and there was a long, COVID-inspired break before it returned for a third season on Max. “We all came back broken in different ways because of Covid,” star Andrew Koji told Inverse (before the SAG-AFTRA strikes started up). “I think a lot of that matched with what happened with the riots at the end of Season 2, and that informed us emotionally.”
There are other issues now. Hollywood is in the midst of both actors and writers strikes, which are resulting in some shows on the bubble being cancelled entirely, like The Peripheral on Amazon. Then there’s the matter of Koji and the rest of the cast getting older, which can be a problem on a show with as much martial arts action as this one. “The training’s always tough,” Koji said. “And getting older is always tough because I’m 35 now, and I know it’s not old, old, but for that kind of level of action, it’s a lot on the body.”
Andrew Koji is afraid he’s getting too “old” to keep Warrior at this rate for much longer
Koji is not kidding; Warrior has some crazy, John Wick-level stuff for him and his castmates to do, and it’s not something anyone can do forever. And yes, I realize that Keanu Reeves is pushing 60 and still pulling off nutso stunts in the John Wick movies, but there’s a difference between that and what Koji and crew have to do on a TV show. “They’ve got weeks and days where they shoot stuff. We have to do stuff very fast, very intense, minimum recovery time. It does take a toll on the body.”
So what are the hopes of a season 4 renewal? “The cast and crew, we’ve got no idea if we’re going to go back,” Koji said. “But I think it will all be all dependent on how much of a splash this can make.”
Koji has a “gut feeling” that “we got a very good chance” for season 4. But the sooner it happens, the better. “If we did Warrior season 4, that would be next year because everyone has to become free,” he said. “It might not be until the middle of next year if we did, and I’m going to be getting old.”
Koji said this before the latest season wrapped up, and while it certainly made a splash with me, and I can’t say I’ve seen many people talking about Warrior. Honestly, I don’t have much hope, but I’ll be happy to be surprised.
Hey Max: if you’re going to renew Warrior, sooner is better
Even if Warrior doesn’t return, at least it’s given career boosts to actors like Jason Tobin, Joe Taslim, and Koji himself. “Warrior gave me a lot,” Koji said. “It gave me confidence and belief in myself that I can do this. I have something to say and give in this field. But even around this time, I’d be getting requests to audition for tiny parts and Asian henchman number four, or whatever.”
"I’m getting typecast already. Action stuff is just being sent to me and nonsensical stuff, and I think it’s a fight to get out of that for me — to try and not do those things or to try and do something quality and not something mind-numbing.After this, it could just all be downhill for me. But at least for now [my experience on Warrior] makes me go, OK, I’d like to do stuff with integrity. And G.I. Joe really wasn’t that, was it?"
Koji did indeed play Storm Shadow Tommy in the 2021 G.I. Joe film Snake Eyes. It didn’t do terribly well, if you can believe that. “Hollywood is just obsessed with telling the same old thing over and again,” Koji said. “Firstly, remakes. Secondly, it’s got to be based on IP. Third, it’s so absurd because I’m just like, hold on. People want originality. Where is it? What is going on here?”
To remedy this, Koji is turning to producing his own work, which I think is a great idea. But man, if there’s a chance we could get another season or two of Warrior, I would be very happy. Warrior is exactly the kind of exciting, deeply felt, original programming I’d love to see more of.
#RenewWarrior
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