According to Deadline, a 10-episode television series based on Gavin O’Connor’s 2011 film Warrior will be produced by Paramount+. In the original film, Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte) did such a bad job of raising his two sons that they grew up with a tremendous enmity towards one another, a result of their father’s dysfunctional upbringing. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton’s characters, the two young men, would have to settle their differences in a boxing ring. When asked by Deadline whether he was considering making a sequel, O’Connor said that he was perfectly content to leave the film as it is.
The actor went on to explain that Lionsgate had approached him about doing a TV series based on Warrior in the years following the original film’s release and that he “honestly wasn’t interested.” To O’Connor, the picture had to remain as it was or be drastically reworked in order to be true to the source material. In addition to O’Connor, Adair Cole was instrumental in developing the show’s unique premise and bringing it to life. O’Connor recalls how it all came together and how he found himself in a new mental state, and soon Cole’s thoughts began to connect with him:
“I found a lot of information there that was quite intriguing. After the holidays, I contacted him and said, ‘I’m in.’ I started drawing out characters, expounding on what he had, and gene splicing things. ‘I believe I’d want to do this,’ I say. We began to piece together our cast. In addition to the pitch, I told Adair and Lionsgate that “this is about the life fight.” O’Connor hopes to “draw the viewers into their adventures” by introducing a new group of characters, two men and two women, in the new limited series, which will not include the Conlon family.
Retired UFC Champion Daniel Cormier and Gina Rodriguez, star of Jane the Virgin and Miss Bala, have been cast in the new series, according to the show’s director. At the centre of the story will be Cormier’s character, a divorced father who has racked up debts trying in vain to rescue his wife from illness, and Rodriguez will portray Jessica Flores, a woman who is searching for her own sense of self-worth. The two remaining combatants must continue their journey. In addition to executive producing, Cole works as co-showrunner with director O’Connor.