Former UFC Champion Daniel Cormier To Star In ‘Warrior’ Spin-Off TV Series

Former UFC champion and two-time Olympian Daniel Cormier has been cast in the lead role for a Warrior TV series set in the same world as the hit 2011 film starring Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton.

The news was confirmed by the original film’s director Gavin O’Connor on the 10th anniversary of the film’s release on Discussing Film. O’Connor announced that he had signed a new deal with Lionsgate to write, direct, and produce every episode of the upcoming series.

The show will not continue with Edgerton and Hardy’s Conlon brother’s however and will focus on a new set of fighter’s – two men and two women – entering the famed tournament from the film, Sparta, to win a large cash prize. 

O’Connor stated the series will focus on the same themes of the movie, with family drama coupled with intense mixed martial arts competition, which saw Nick Nolte nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Cormier’s character – Bobby Watkins – is the only confirmed casting decision announced so far. The character is said to be living in Houston through the series and fighting to get his family out of poverty. 

The two female lead characters were stated as a convicted Irish felon serving her sentence at a prison called Mountjoy, and a conservative lesbian Muslim who is trying to hide both her sexuality and her fighting life from her community just outside of Paris, France. 

Since retirement

Cormier retired from mixed martial arts competition in 2020 after his second loss to rival Stipe Miocic in a trilogy of fights. The former champion has since become a commentator for the UFC – often with Joe Rogan and Jon Anik – and an analyst for ESPN. 

Cormier has not escaped controversy even though his fighting days are now over. Conor McGregor took issue with Cormier after the analyst gave a critique of the Irishman’s recent behavior surrounding Dustin Poirier and Khabib Nurmagomedov, which was subsequently settled after Cormier put McGregor number one on his list of must-see UFC fighters. 

The commentator was also involved in a heated exchange with Youtube star Jake Paul at UFC 261 after Cormier took umbrage to personal comments that Paul had made about him in the media and at the event itself then began heckling Cormier during his commentary duties leading to a confrontation. 

A broadcaster for the upcoming Warrior series is still yet to be announced.