The only shortcoming might have been promotions. “It was one of my favorite most solid productions I’ve ever worked on.” He felt the show had everything, a great cast, a great story, a big budget and a top-notch production team. Looking back on it now, Wu remembers the Badlands with great fondness. We definitely went through the whole gamut of blood choices.”
And then blood for your face, blood for your mouth, blood that goes in your eyes, all kinds of blood. You have thick viscous blood for certain things. “One of our props rooms there was just like gallons and gallons of blood everywhere. Wu jokes that blood was one of the most expensive commodities. From the opening credits, no one escaped the Badlands without getting bloody. No matter what gender or race, everyone bleeds the same color. Into the Badlands: Creators Explain That Epic Ending By Stephen Harber “This is a directive from the top down that we wanted a very diverse production, so not only people behind the scenes were diverse but from the extra level.” “All the other characters are very diverse, either strong females, or strong people of color, even the background actors,” Wu says. Gough and Millar knew what they were getting into when it came to fight choreography so having a separate fight action crew was in the mix from the beginning.Īnother element that was there from the start was diversity.
Martial Law had multiple martial arts choreographers for different episodes including Stanley Tong, a noted Hong Kong action director, Yuen Tak, another martial brother of Jackie and Sammo, and Andy Cheng, who also served as one of the action directors for Into the Badlands. That show starred Sammo Hung, the veteran Hong Kong action star (and martial brother of Jackie Chan).
Back in the late ‘90s, they were involved with another unprecedented martial arts-based TV show, Martial Law.
And we didn’t want to compromise that.”įortunately, the creators of Into the Badlands, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, had some prior experience with martial arts TV series which helped establish that second action crew. The reason why I think Badlands was successful was because we were able to do high level action with high level production value with high level storytelling. “People wanted to jump into it and then realized that it’s not easy to do. But as Wu says, “Shooting a week of drama and then allocating one day for action doesn’t really work for an action show.” Giving the action crew equal status was unprecedented and has yet to be repeated. Consequently, the quality of the fight choreography declines towards the end of the season when it should be intensifying. In the wake of Badlands, several other networks launched martial arts-based series like Warrior, Wu Assassins, and Cobra Kai, but none have taken that extra step of having a fight crew that was equal in magnitude to their dramatic crew. But to do it well you have to really commit to it.” So it’s a big commitment for a studio, right? And I think that’s what probably scared other studios away because they didn’t necessarily see the return on that value. Season 3 was almost $100 million to make that. We were like in the $6-7 million dollar range. So it’s like making two TV shows at once. “We had two crews shooting at the same time-action and drama at the same time-so you have each crew of 150 people. “It was expensive to make our show,” Wu admits. And to accommodate the copious fight scenes, it had a separate crew. Into the Badlands was an extravagant big budget show, with lush costumes, a large cast, and massive sets. Premiering in 2015, AMC cancelled it in the middle of the third season break. Into the Badlands was an original series set in a gun-free post-apocalyptic world where martial arts ruled supreme. Wu played Sunny, the most lethal “clipper” in the Badlands. “I would never say never but I think the ship has sailed on that one.” Is it too late to revive the show? Daniel Wu, leading man and producer on the series, is doubtful. Since AMC cancelled its martial arts-infused series Into the Badlands in early 2019, it has attracted a cult following with all three seasons available on Netflix.