‘Warrior’ star Jason Tobin hails season three renewal as HBO Max hit resonates with fans amid Stop Asian Hate movement

It’s official – Warrior will be back for a third season, and likely beyond, after finding huge success since moving from the now-defunct Cinemax to HBO Max.

And Hong Kong born-and-raised actor Jason Tobin – who stars as Young Jun, in one of the martial arts crime drama’s most pivotal roles – is relieved in more ways than one.

“No one stopped pushing,” Tobin told SCMP MMA after the renewal was announced in late April. “Jonathan Tropper our show runner, Shannon Lee and Justin Lin our executive producers, none of those people that had sway stopped. And fans didn’t stop talking about it and spreading the word, they made so much noise. All the cast stayed engaged with people, kept pushing for it. The efforts of many different people came together.

“Casey Cloys who is now head of HBO content was really instrumental in saying let’s do this. When Justin and JT [Tropper] approached him he was really receptive. The show was doing so well on HBO Max, that was critical. Going from Cinemax on January 1, it’s just made such a huge difference because all of a sudden we have so many more eyeballs, that momentum has been building.”

Warrior is based on an original concept and treatment by Hong Kong martial arts icon Bruce Lee, revived by his daughter Shannon Lee for Cinemax in 2019. Set in 1870s San Francisco during the Tong Wars – a series of violent disputes between warring factions in America’s Chinatowns – the show deals with the experience of Chinese immigrants and the racism they face. And it has arguably been a case of “right place, right time” with its central themes hitting home amid a sharp rise in anti-Asian hate during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in the US.