By Entertainment giant Netflix is continuing their bold ambition to produce half a billion shows this fiscal year with the announcement of Wu Assassins. In what sounds like an exact retelling of Jackie Chan Adventures, the action crime fantasy film will follow The Raid and The Raid 2 star Iko Uwais as Kai Jin, the last Wu Assassin navigating San Francisco’s crime underbelly and maintaiingn peace and order in the world. There will be action, violence, supernatural elements, and Altered Carbon actor Byron Mann playing a character called Uncle Six. Uncle!
In addition to the lead role, Uwais will serve as stunt coordinator and fight choreographer, roles he also had for both Raid films and really the most important behind-the-camera role that matters for a show like this. While the first Raid had a nice compact story, the second suffered from bloat and boiled down to men in suits yelling while pretending to be as tough as Uwais.
Marial Arts shows and movies are first and foremost vehicles for incredible fight scenes and stunts with the story there mostly to get to the next fight scene. Strictly speaking, martial arts TV shows are pretty rare. David Carradine’s Kung Fu is probably the most well-known and successful while the most recent one, while the most recent one, Netflix’s own Iron Fist, has been received… less well. With Uwais’ name attached to this project, though, I feel safer in looking forward to this series. The world always needs more dudes punching dudes in such a beautiful way.