Getty NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 26: Jonathan Tropper, Shannon Lee and Justin Lin visit Build to discuss the TV show "Warrior" at the Build Studio on March 26, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images)
Warrior, based off a show pitched–and never made–by Bruce Lee nearly 50 years ago and executive produced by his daughter Shannon, premieres Friday, April 5, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Cinemax.
If you don’t have cable or Cinemax, you can watch Warrior episodes live or on-demand on your computer, phone, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV or other streaming device via one of the following cable-free, live-TV streaming services:
If you have Amazon Prime or want to start a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, you can watch live and on-demand Cinemax content through the Cinemax Amazon Channel, which also comes with a free 7-day trial.
Once you’re signed up for both Amazon Prime and the Cinemax channel, you can then watch Warrior episodes either live as they air or on-demand anytime after. With either option, you can watch on your computer via the Amazon website, or you can watch on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or other streaming device via the Amazon Video app.
You can watch live and on-demand Cinemax content through PlayStation Vue, whether you already have a subscription or if you want to start a free trial. You can either add Cinemax to one of the main Vue channel packages (which come with 60-plus live TV channels), or you can select Cinemax as its own standalone option. Either way, you can watch Cinemax with a free trial.
Once signed up, you can watch Warrior either live as it airs or on-demand anytime after. With either option, you can watch your computer via the PS Vue website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation (3 or 4), or other supported device via the PS Vue app.
Whether you already have Hulu or you want to sign up for a new subscription, you can watch live and on-demand Cinemax content through the Cinemax add-on, which can be included with either regular Hulu or “Hulu with Live TV.”
Once signed up, you can watch Warrior live as it airs, or you can watch it on-demand anytime after. With either option, you can watch on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (on-demand only), Nintendo Switch, Echo Show or other streaming device via the Hulu app.
‘Warrior’ Preview
In 1971, Bruce Lee pitched to Warner Bros. and Paramount a TV show titled The Warrior, which centered around a Chinese immigrant with martial arts skills in the 19th Century American West.
“Both of them [Warner and Paramount], I think, they want me to be in a modernized type of a thing, and they think that the Western type of thing is out,” said Lee in a 1971 interview with Pierre Berton. “Whereas I want to do the Western. Because, you see, how else can you justify all of the punching and kicking and violence, except in the period of the West?”
A year later, though, Warner Bros. picked up Kung Fu, a martial arts western drama starring David Carradine, a white actor.
But now, Lee’s initial idea is finally coming to fruition in the form of Warrior, which, with the help of Lee’s original notes for the show, is executive produced by his daughter, Shannon, along with Banshee creator Jonathan Tropper, who wrote the first two episodes, and Justin Lin, who has directed several of the Fast & The Furious movies.
Also according to Lee’s vision, the leading role of Ah Sahm belongs to a mixed-race actor in Andrew Koji (Fast & Furious 6, American Gods), who is of Japanese and English descent. Ah Sahm immigrates from China to San Francisco, where he becomes a hatchet man during the Tong Wars in the late 1800’s.
The rest of the cast is majority Asian, including Jason Tobin, Olivia Cheng and Dianne Doan.
It’s unfortunate we had to wait almost 50 years for Lee’s idea to become a reality, but as Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall writes, this may actually be the perfect time for Warrior:
Midway through the season, Ah Sahm and Young Jun are sent out of town for an episode that finds them battling stagecoach rustlers inside a Wild West saloon. It’s a delight, and the closest Warrior comes to stepping directly into the territory of Kung Fu. But even if Lee had been able to sell his own script back then, television in the Seventies wasn’t equipped to recreate the past and stage epic martial-arts battles on the scale that Warrior does throughout. This is the right time and place for Lee’s vision to come to thrilling life, even if he’s not around to star in it. Warrior is a blast.
The first season of Warrior will have 10 episodes.