Even though Warrior first debuted on our screens only a few years ago in 2019, the show’s roots can be traced back decades ago. Martial arts movie messiah Bruce Lee originally came up with the story over half a century ago for what would become Warrior. Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter, worked tirelessly to ensure her father’s dream would become a reality. That said, Warrior did have its fair share of ups and downs.
So far, there have been two seasons of Warrior, the first one which aired in 2019 and the second which aired in late 2020. Ever since, the show’s fate has been unclear mainly because early last summer, parent company WarnerMedia ceased all the original programming taking place on Cinemax, where Warrior originally aired. This left the show without a home that led to all its uncertainty.
However, the show began streaming its two seasons on HBO Max on January 1, 2021. This led to massive success for the show as it found an even bigger audience given the large number of subscribers the streaming giant has. While Lee and Tropper couldn’t share exactly the number of viewers for the show after it moved to HBO Max, they know for certain that Warrior outperformed significantly better than what it did on Cinemax. In fact, the show even surpassed Game of Thrones on the streaming platform’s “Popular TV” section.
When the show’s renewal was announced in the April 14th press release, Shannon Lee credited HBO Max “for understanding the importance of telling this story.” While it’s still quite early to know all the details about the show, here’s everything we know so far about Warrior season 3 and what you can expect out of it.
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Season 3: Potential Storyline
The second season ended with Zing breaking out of prison, so the story will likely move forward from there in the upcoming season. One thing we are certain of seeing in the upcoming season is more bloodshed. Ah Sahm will be cast out as the brother of the actor Long Zi chief, and if any of the other soldiers get to know, they will end up causing problems with him in the Hop Wei. In addition, we have already seen Young Jun struggling with all the responsibilities as the new Hop Wei leader, thus needing Ah Co more than ever, especially since the latter has become an icon in the whole Chinatown community. Furthermore, Mai Ling is out for blood. Her allegiance to the corrupt acting Mayor Buckley — she’s been blackmailing him about his past as an allied soldier — will most likely result in another showdown on the streets of Chinatown.
However, all of this is based on assumptions from what we have seen in the season 2 finale. When asked about what they can reveal about the upcoming season, Trooper said in an interview with Inverse:
“I don’t want to say anything that turns out to be not what we do. But the goal is to continue exploring themes we have been exploring, with the country’s disposition towards the newest wave of immigrants. [We will] go into the halls of government and start clarifying how immigrants end up pitted against each other in the system. But in terms of the Hop Wei and the Long Zhi, we need to get our heads wrapped around that.”
Season 3: The Cast
Since the renewal of the third season of Warrior was announced only a few weeks ago, not much about who will be returning for the series’ next season has been confirmed formally. That said, there is a level of passion for this show that is shared commonly by a number of the cast members and producers alike, as we saw by all the public support the show received for its renewal before it was officially announced. In the same interview with Inverse, Jonathan Tropper was asked if he could confirm whether any of the Warrior cast will be returning for the third season. He went on to say, “Confirming means a deal is done, and HBO is in the process of doing those. I can say we are trying to bring everybody back, and we are confident we will.”
Now, assuming that all the show’s key players will come back for season 3, it is pretty obvious that we will see Andrew Koji reprise his role as Ah Sahm. Koji plays the role of a martial artist and serves as the show’s central character. We will also most likely see Dianna Doan, who played Mai Ling in the first two seasons, also return. Other than these two, we will mostly see Olivia Cheng, who plays brothel madam Ah Toy, and the recently appointed Hop Wei Tong chief Young Jun, played by Jason Tobin, also join the cast.
In an interview with Pop Culture, Shannon Lee revealed she had plans to appear on the show in a cameo role in what was then a possible third season. Lee is a cross-disciplinary student of Kickboxing, Wushu, and Taekwondo and follows her late father Bruce Lee’s footsteps of Jeet Kune Do martial arts ideology. It will be really exciting to see Shannon Lee show off her real-life fighting skills on the show.
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Season 3: Premiere Date
Season 3, spanning 10 episodes, is slated to make its HBO Max debut in 2023.