Why HBO Max Canceled Warrior (Again)

"Warrior" walked a long and lonely road to make it on screen. It all started with the one and only Bruce Lee, who in 1971 developed a TV series that he hoped would showcase his world class martial arts skills. Called "Ah Sahm," it told the story of a Chinese immigrant in the American Old West who gets pulled into the Tong Wars of turn of the century San Francisco. Hollywood took Lee's treatment for the series and turned it into "Kung Fu," a show about a kung fu master who is decidedly not Asian.

It seemed like that was the end of "Ah Sahm" for Lee's daughter Shannon, who looked for projects that would further his legacy and not just capitalize on his image. And that's when Justin Lin, hot off of several of The Fast and the Furious's best installments, approached her about dusting off Lee's original pitch for a series.

It only took 45 years, but "Warrior" premiered on Cinemax with all the style and spectacle that would have made Lee proud. The first season released in 2019, with another ten episode season coming out the following year. "Warrior" season 2 didn't exactly get canceled, so much as Cinemax got out of the original programming game entirely. Cinemax's other shows "The Knick" and "Banshee" came to an end and it looked like "Warrior" would fall next, but in 2021 HBO Max announced they were renewing the series for a third season that would eventually premiere in 2023, at which point they were now rechristened to simply Max.

The launch of season 3 made it feel like "Warrior" might finally break out, but this unlikely comeback ended in defeat when the streaming service formerly known as Max canceled the show. Looking back on the reasons why, it's clear even the greatest kung fu warrior couldn't overcome these stumbling blocks.

In each episode, "Warrior" fought hard to be the badass series Bruce Lee would be proud of, with special credit going to stunt coordinator Brett Chan who gave each character their own unique approach to fight scenes that felt visceral and powerful. But despite their efforts, "Warrior" went under the radar for as long as it was on the air. Everyone who watched the show was united in calling it one of the best shows on TV, but they had to attach the unfortunate caveat that most audiences hadn't caught up to the show yet.

Season 3 went into production in July 2022, and they were set to premiere their hard work less than a year later in June 2023. But only a month after the third season finally debuted, the Screen Actors Guild went on strike alongside the Writers Guild. As a part of the strike rules, actors from the series couldn't promote their work on the show, which certainly didn't help a show that was always under the radar finally get the breakout victory lap it deserved.

While the actors were dealing with their own labor issues, the leadership at Warner Bros. experienced several turnovers over the course of the show's production. WB was acquired by Discovery, and the merger produced a new company called Warner Bros-Discovery, and to signal their changing priorities they renamed their flagship streaming service to Max.

That means the leadership who saw promise in a third season of "Warrior" were now facing new mandates, and in this chaotic landscape of corporate mergers and shake-ups, "Warrior" is just one of many to end up getting canceled. With the decision made to cancel the show, Netflix picked up the rights to stream all three seasons of the show. "Warrior" reportedly performed well on the platform, but according to star Joe Taslim, it wasn't enough to get the streamer to order another season.

The end may have come for "Warrior," but kung fu is timeless and perhaps one day audiences will catch up to the bold vision "Warrior" established in its brief run.