Warrior, the butt-kicking show shot in Cape Town, returns

Shot in Cape Town with Moonlighting, Warrior is set in the ruthless world of late 19th century San Francisco, where rival Chinatown tongs fight for dominance amidst the growing anti-Chinese fervor that threatens to destroy them all. 

“Warrior feels like if Peaky Blinders starred Bruce Lee and was set in 1870s Chinatown. It’s great,” says Vox – a claim backed up by an 8.4/10 rating on IMDb and an 89% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Warrior was nominated for Best Action Series at the 2021 Critics Choice Super Awards, where lead Andrew Koji (Fast & Furious 6) was also up for Best Actor. The Emmy-nominated show was also up for a 2021 Visual Effects Society Award. 

Based on the writings of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, Warrior was created by Jonathan Tropper (Banshee), executive produced by the likes of Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee and Justin Lin (director of five Fast and Furious films), and filmed at Cape Town Film Studios with Moonlighting. 

All eyes on the Mother City

Cape Town doubles for a lawless 1870s San Francisco in this sumptuous, kick-ass martial arts period drama, with Season 2 finally hitting our screens in May.

Set during the Californian Tong Wars, the story centres on Chinese immigrant and martial arts prodigy Ah Sahm, who comes to San Francisco to search for his sister, only to find himself sold to one of the most powerful tongs in Chinatown.

The first martial arts drama from HBO’s Cinemax, the legendary Bruce Lee’s original “lost” pitch was brought to life by his daughter, Shannon Lee and The Fast and The Furious director Justin Lin in a series created by Banshee writer-creator Jonathan Tropper.

The series stars Andrew Koji (Call the Midwife, The Innocents), Olivia Cheng (The Stand, Deadly Class), Jason Tobin (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), Dianne Doan (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Good Trouble, Vikings, Descendants), Hoon Lee (Banshee, Bosch, Mulan), Maria Elena Laas (Vida) and South Africa’s own Langley Kirkwood (Inconceivable, Banshee, Dredd, Mia and the White Lion).

Look out for glimpses of the cunningly disguised Mother City and a host of other SA actors, including SAFTA nominees Graham Hopkins (The Girl from St. Agnes, The Lab) and Robert Hobbs (The Girl from St. Agnes, District 9), SAFTA winners Emmanuel Castis (Trackers, Erfsondes) and Deon Lotz (Trackers, Skoonheid, Axis Mundi), Kenneth Fok (Rogue, Five Fingers for Marseilles), André Jacobs (Black Sails, Vagrant Queen), David Butler (Black Sails, Cape Town) and multi-award-winning Fried Barry director Ryan Kruger. 

Warrior has an 8.4/10 score on IMDb, and a 92% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was named among Rolling Stone’s Best New Television Shows of 2019, with indieWire comparing it to Peaky Blinders and Gangs of New York, and The Ringer calling it “a supremely kick-ass and criminally underappreciated martial arts Western”.

It’s been nominated for an Emmy for its title design, an IGN Summer Movie Award for Best TV Action Series, and two 2020 Critics’ Choice Super Awards, for Best Action Series and Best Actor in an Action Series (Andrew Koji).