Warrior star was “legitimately hurt” by the show’s cancellation

The third season of Warrior just wrapped up on Max, and I, for one, badly want more. This martial arts drama aired its first two seasons on Cinemax before getting cancelled and revived by Max. It’s always been a little under the radar, but it shouldn’t be, because it has tremendous action scenes, a meaty story, fleshed out characters and fantastic performances from actors like Andrew Koji and Jason Tobin, who play Ah Sahm and Young Jun respectively.

Koji and Tobin sat down with Collider to talk about how they felt when they heard that season 3 was indeed happening, cause for a minute there it seemed like the show was going to die on the vine. “It was pretty devastating news to be honest, especially for me personally,” Tobin said of getting cancelled by Cinemax. “I was legitimately hurt by the cancellation. I’ve been in this career for a long time, and I finally thought, ‘Okay, we’ve got a winner here. We’ve given it our all. Everyone on this team, top to bottom, from the writers to the producers to the extras.’ Everyone works so hard on this show. So, when they canceled it, I took it hard. And then, of course, we had a pandemic. When we finally got the call to come back, we came in with all that baggage, which was great because it helped with the storytelling and the acting and the performances for Season 3.”

Koji didn’t talk about how he felt when he heard about the cancellation, but was ready for the call. “It was less about, ‘We’re going back into it,’ and more about everything that we’ve learned along the way, in the past two and a half years or so,” he said. “All the life experience we’ve had informed the performances. Everything we’ve learned fuels the season. The show has always felt like an underdog, from its inception in Bruce Lee’s mind, over 60 years ago now, to going to a different streamer. Everything has informed that, and we try and use it. So, it’s less going back, and more going forward.”

Ah Sahm, Young Jun, Andrew Koji and Jason Tobin

The relationship between Ah Sahm and Young Jun was very important to the third season of Warrior. These two started out as strangers, became brothers in arms, and by the end of season 3…well, let’s just say that things got very messy.

Koji and Tobin talked to Collider before the Hollywood actors strike, which meant they didn’t comment directly on the explosive events of the season 3 finale. But however brutal things got onscreen, their relationship is chugging along well. “From the beginning, when we met on the Chinatown backlot, what I love about working with Jason is that there’s no ego,” Koji said. “When it comes to our dynamic, it’s all about what serves the story. We talk quite a bit, in depth, before and during the scenes, during rehearsal and while we’re prepping for them. That’s always fun to do.”

Tobin is just as psyched to be working with Koji. “It’s been an absolute pleasure,” he said. “It’s such a gift to be given this role, and then to work with actors, like Andrew and the rest of our cast, who are so giving and who are all doing it for the right reasons, we’re all just trying to serve the story and serve the characters. And then, they give us these great characters and it’s just very enjoyable. Nothing’s stationary. Everything is volatile. There are constantly things bubbling up.”

Will Warrior be back for season 4?

That brings us to today. The third season is over, Hollywood writers and actors are both on strike, and we haven’t heard anything from Max about renewing Warrior for season 4.

The third season left us with a lot of cliffhangers, and I’m hoping and praying we get at least one more set of episodes. The cast and crew deserve it. If you’ve already watched and enjoyed Warrior, tell your friends. If you haven’t, considering checking it out on Max. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

#RenewWarrior

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