AJ Lee (AJ Mendez) will soon see part of her vision come to life on the silver screen. Variety announced this weekend that production wrapped in Hungary for Blade of the 47 Ronin, a sequel to 2013’s action film, 47 Ronin. The former WWE star co-wrote the screenplay of the film alongside John Swetnam and Aimee Garcia. While the original 47 Ronin is based off of a graphic novel series, Blade is an original script and details about the movie were revealed by Variety.
The action is moved forward by some 300 years to present-day Budapest, which is intended as a metaphor for East-West confluence, and where a meeting of the five Samurai clans is taking place. In addition to the male clan leaders, the meeting is also attended by three Onna Bugeisha (literally ‘Women Warriors’), though their presence is initially resented.
Production was handled by Universal Studios through its 1440 Productions unit for Netflix. The streamer is expected to release it sometime in 2022, though a specific date is still unknown.
The existence of female Samurai who fought alongside their male colleagues in feudal Japan is well documented. But their stories have rarely been told due to societal pressure and political turmoil. In “Blade” the women lead the campaign to reunite two halves of a mythical sword and keep it out of the hands of a villain who wants power for himself.
The cast is headed by: Anna Akana, a U.S. actor and YouTube creator; U.S. martial artist Teresa Ting; Mike Moh, who played Bruce Lee in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”; veteran Vietnamese-American actor and filmmaker Dustin Nguyen (“Warrior”); Australian Chris Pang (“Charlie’s Angels,” “Crazy Rich Asians”); Japanese actor and model Chikako Fukuyama (“Terrace House: Aloha State”); and seasoned action specialist Mark Dacascos (“John Wick 3,” “Wu Assassins”).
Lee started a production company with her co-writer Garcia called Scrappy Heart Productions.
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