It’s Wednesday, my dudes — and what better way to get us over the hump than a brand new trailer for a new Netflix series starring Indonesian martial arts action star Iko Uwais.
Yesterday, Netflix dropped the trailer for Wu Assassins, a fantastical series that blends martial arts, the world of Triads, and supernatural elements. Iko stars as an ass-kicking chef named Kai Jin.
Here’s the show’s official description:
Wu Assassins follows Kai Jin, a young Chinatown chef in present day San Francisco, as he becomes entangled with the Chinese Triad’s pursuit of deadly ancient powers known as the ‘Wu Xing.’ After an encounter with a mystical spirit, Kai reluctantly becomes the Wu Assassin, using his enhanced martial arts skills to recover supernatural powers from five modern day criminals threatening to use them to destroy the world.
In the trailer, we can see that the story begins with the Wu Warlords bringing death and suffering to the world. One thousand monks sacrifice themselves to empower a Chosen One to stop them, and that person in the present day is Kai Jin.
Though this appears to be a central element of the show rather than a spoiler, the trailer also reveals that Kai Jin might have to kill his own father, a Triad boss played by Byron Mann (Netflix’s Altered Carbon, Arrow), to save Chinatown and the world.
As exciting as the premise is, the visual effects shown in the trailer look kind of underwhelming, such as when Iko is being possessed by the monks, punches a big rock, or whenever he face-shifts (yep) into Mark Dacascos (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum), who plays an unnamed monk in the series.
But there’s reason to at least be hopeful for some incredible fight choreography. Another clip posted by Netflix yesterday shows a snippet from the series in which Iko’s Kai Jin and some dudes fight in a — you guessed it — narrow hallway. Such fight choreography was one of the many reasons The Raid was so badass, and it also notably influenced the fight scenes in another Netflix hit, Daredevil.
Every clip from Wu Assassins exerts a measurable force of up to 1,800 pounds per square inch so please don't sit too close to the screen. pic.twitter.com/MsjcJECmRk
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) July 22, 2019
Iko plays an impressively huge role in the series, serving not just as the lead but also the series’ producer, lead martial arts and fight choreographer, as well as a stunt coordinator. Wu Assassins was created by John Wirth (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Tony Krantz (Mulholland Drive, 24). The series also stars Katheryn Winnick (Vikings, The Dark Tower), Tzi Ma (Arrival, The Farewell), and Lewis Tan (Den of Thieves, Deadpool 2).
In the meantime, you can add Wu Assassins to your Netflix list and watch it when it’s made available for streaming on August 8.
It’s been quite a busy year for Iko so far, with his new action comedy flick Stuber, in which he portrays a villain to Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani, now playing in theatres across Indonesia. Iko has acquired some loyal fans during his decade-long career as an action star, including a Scottish woman who went viral for tattooing an image of his bloodied face on one of her arms.
