SoHo to Go Into the Badlands

SoHo will premiere “genre-bending” martial arts drama Into the Badlands within two days of the US.

The AMC series will launch November 15 in the US and air 9.30 Tuesdays on SoHo from November 17.

AMC hopes it will be the channel’s next Walking Dead phenomenon.

“The big success of The Walking Dead are the characters, what they need to do to survive,” star Daniel Wu this week told The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s what we’re going for.”

The series also stars Kiwi Martin Csokas as the hero’s most trusted advisor.

According to SoHo’s blurb, Badlands is loosely based on the Chinese tale Journey to the West, about a ruthless warrior and a young boy who embark on a spiritual journey across a dangerous land:

Centuries from now, a feudal society has emerged, with the strongest and most brutal rising to wealth and power. The treacherous area known as the Badlands is divided among seven rival Barons who control the resources necessary for daily life, and enforce their rule with the aid of loyal armies known as Clippers, who enjoy status and comforts the general population can only dream of in exchange for the willingness to sacrifice their lives in service to their Barons.

Sunny (Daniel Wu) is no ordinary Clipper, demonstrating lethal proficiency in martial arts and rising swiftly through the ranks to become Quinn’s (Marton Csokas) most trusted advisor. When Sunny encounters M.K., a teenage boy who has survived a deadly ambush, he soon comes to learn that the teen harbours a dark secret and has a hefty bounty on his head.

In their evolution as teacher and student, the destinies of the stoic assassin and the impetuous teenager become intertwined. Each will discover his true purpose; together, they will embark on an odyssey that could mean the difference between chaos and enlightenment for everyone in the Badlands.

With a bumper slate of series starting or returning this month, SoHo’s other November newcomers are limited to encore seasons of Olive Kitteridge and Babylon, the Chris Rock-directed  stand-up special Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo, and weekend box sets of Ray Donovan (S3), Strike Back (S4), Masters of Sex (S3), Episodes (S4) and Catastrophe (S1).