'Into The Badlands's' premieres its third season this Sunday

AMC

Daniel Wu stars in 'Into the Badlands.'

INTO THE BADLANDS starts its third season this Sunday and it has undergone some changes. Daniel Wu, the Asian/American actor who stars in and produces the martial arts epic. He's become woke.

He was aware of the racism -- concious and unconcious -- that is part of the entertainment industry in Hollywood, but, at first, after 20 years in Hong Kong, he viewed it as an Asian, not as an Asian/American. In a lengthy essay in The Wrap, he explains the gradual process of awareness he underwent.

"Growing up a Chinese-American kid in 1970s and 1980s California, I saw no possibility for me to become an actor, especially one playing lead roles," Wu wrote in The Wrap. "There were many characters I loved on television — white, black and Latino — but I rarely saw people like myself represented. When I did see an Asian man appear on the screen, he was either a gross stereotype or something even worse."

"Arriving in Berkeley, Calif., as newlyweds in 1961, my parents were barred from purchasing the house they wanted when the realtor told them it was in a 'Whites Only' neighborhood," Wu wrote.

In early interviews during the first season of Into the Badlands, Wu kept his distance from the growing debate over #Oscarssowhite, yellowface and whitewashing. "I was reluctant to be a racial role model," he wrote. "I just wanted to focus on the work and make great television. During my 20 years in Asia I never needed to talk about these topics, let alone be the center of attention about them."

Wu went on to explain: "Living and working in Asia insulated me from the race issue that is all-pervasive in entertainment in the U.S., especially now. When I won a part in Hong Kong, it was because I was right for it and not just because I fit the bill racially. Conversely, if I was rejected, it was because of my ability, which was something I could work on and not because of my race, which I couldn’t. So instead of being an angry Asian American actor lamenting about limited roles, being in Asia allowed me to focus on the craft of acting and to choose roles that helped broaden me as an actor.

"If I had spent years in U.S. casting rooms getting rejected because I wasn’t the right skin color, or turning down one stereotypical role after another, or taking said roles because I needed to pay rent, I would have quit a long time ago."

Wu's transformation began during the course of that first season. By the second season he had changed his perspective as the impact of his leading man role began to dawn on him.

"I started to understand the importance of stepping up. I’ve accepted the fact that I am one of the very few Asian men in the American entertainment (world) and that by default, people were going to look to me symbol of change. So as people have embraced me I have learned to embrace that new role.

"I am proud to know that I might have some part in righting what happened to Bruce Lee over 40 years ago. And I am proud that some kid might watch Into the Badlands and think, “I want to be like him!”

Into the Badlands has moved its production to Ireland, which allows it to have a grander scope, more extras and bigger sets and more complex battle scenes. It's approaching a Game of Thrones level of production.

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Into the Badlands, Season 3, premieres on the AMC Network, Sunday, April 22, 10 pm EST/9 pm C

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