Wu Assassins star talks Uncle Six's fate and emotional unscripted moment
Note: This article contains spoilers for Wu Assassins season 1.
Wu Assassins star Byron Mann has discussed his character Uncle Six's fate by the end of the first season, as well as revealed which emotional moment was unscripted.
Uncle Six began the series as the main villain, being the Fire Wu and the Triad leader. But over the course of the season he showed he was willing to do anything to make amends with his adopted son Kai Jin (Iko Uwais).
Ultimately, the end of episode 9 saw Uncle Six shot in the head by Zan, the Triad's new leader.
"One guy was so upset that my character was shot and ostensibly killed, he said, 'I'm going to sue Wu Assassins'," he said, with a laugh. "I sent that message to [showrunner John Wirth]. I said, 'So this guy is going to sue, you better start lawyering up!'
"There's a saying in television which is, don't save it. If there's something dramatic, crazy, outrageous, unexpected, just throw it in there. And I think they threw it in there, and it's certainly not something that was expected."
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Mann also suggested that there are ways to bring Uncle Six back, if a second season happens, and admitted that he was surprised by how many people ended up rooting for his character.
"Is he really dead? Is he going to be dead forever? Is he going to rise from the dead? Who knows," he said. "If we do a second season, then we'll tackle that question.
"I certainly didn't expect my character to be well-liked by audiences. I just played the character as was written. He's essentially a monster who has a soft spot for his adopted son, which eventually becomes his Achilles' heel."
One key scene showing Uncle Six's love for his adopted son came in episode 7, as the pair sat around a campfire. When Kai asks why Uncle Six took him in, Uncle Six recalled how he found Kai in the container, refusing to leave his father's dead body.
"You said this one word," he says. "Yatim. Yatim. Over and over again."
Uncle Six then explains that he made his decision one week after Kai was taken to the neighbourhood centre.
"They said you kept running away," he says. "By that time, I found out that yatim means 'no father' in Indonesian. So I took you, so you wouldn't be yatim any longer."
Uncle Six finishes by saying another phrase in Indonesian, ayah sayang kamu. This was not translated. And as it turns out, this part was also unscripted.
"I actually sprang it on him," Mann said.
"Yatim was scripted because I lobbied for it. I actually went to John Wirth and said, 'Let me speak some Indonesian to Iko. He's been speaking our language for the entire show. Why don't we speak something of his language back at him?
"Then there's another line at the end of the speech, which I added in Indonesian. It means 'father loves you'."
Mann added that he only told co-star Katheryn Winnick, who directed the episode, the addition to the speech that he was planning.
"I actually didn't tell Iko. I didn't tell John. I told Katheryn Winnick, the director, and I said to make sure on this next take that the camera has film and we're in focus! Because it's probably going to be one take.
"Because Iko didn't know it was coming, when I said it there was a 100% visceral reaction on his face."
The show also stars Li Jun Li, Celia Au, Lawrence Kao, Tommy Flanagan, and Lewis Tan.
All ten episodes of Wu Assassins season 1 are available to watch on Netflix right now.
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