It appears as though former two-division UFC champion, Daniel Cormier, can add a new line to his ever-growing resume, this time as leading man. According to an interview director Gavin O’Connor did with discussingfilm.net, Cormier was the first man cast for an upcoming TV series based off the popular MMA movie, Warrior.
“The one person I’ve cast so far is DC,” O’Connor said. “He’s playing a guy named Bob. He’s playing Bobby Watkins, who lives in Houston and is fighting his way out of poverty for his family.”
The show will be called Warriors as an homage to its movie counterpart.
For those familiar with the film, the TV show will be different. You aren’t going to see the same characters re-cast or storylines blended.
“It’s not the movie, so there’s no Conlan family, there’s none of the brothers or dad, there are no characters from the movie,” he said. “But the show will be in the spirit of the movie. It will be dealing with social issues that are important to me, as there were social issues that were important to me back then that I was dramatizing. There will be characters fighting for something bigger than themselves. We will get the audience to understand and feel deep feelings for the characters before they end up fighting each other, along with the emotional complexity of that. It’s the painful realities of contemporary America I want to deal with. I’m dealing with issues, whether it’s poverty, incarceration, mental health, or addiction; it’s social issues that are important to me that I want to explore in a series, but through different characters.”
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Cormier expressed his excitement for the series once the news had broken, joking that it’s time to get back in shape.
“It’s about to be real treadmill and nutrition time,” he tweeted.
This is the first time we will see the former champion in a role like this, on such a big stage and Cormier knows just what it means.
“DC going to Hollywood baby,” he tweeted. “For all the support you guys have given me makes opportunities like this possible. This is only the beginning hopefully. Thank you.”
It’s unclear how this will affect his UFC color commentary gig, if at all.
Daniel Cormier to star in Warrior TV series