USA Stunt News
Can Aydin, Stunt Coordinator Turned Director, Sets The Healer With Eddie Peng and Ewan Mitchell
Posted: May 13, 2026
Action stunt coordinator and 2nd unit director Can Aydin is moving into the director's chair for The Healer, a martial arts feature starring Eddie Peng and Ewan Mitchell that has just wrapped principal photography. Aydin built his reputation on Thunderbolts*, The Fall Guy, and Disney's Obi-Wan Kenobi — coordinator-level work where the choreography and the camera plan are inseparable — and that pedigree is what producers Highland Film Group and 66cc are leaning on as they launch international sales at Cannes. Early footage shown to buyers is being described as scale fight choreography with cinematic ambition rather than a self-contained showcase reel; the pitch is that the action carries the picture. For coordinators eyeing a similar jump, it's another data point: the previs-and-2nd-unit path now reads as a credible route to feature direction, not a detour from it.
Source: Variety — Eddie Peng and Ewan Mitchell to Lead Action Feature The Healer
The Punisher: One Last Kill — The Viral "Bad CG" Rooftop Fall Was Actually a Practical Stunt
Posted: May 12, 2026
Marvel's The Punisher: One Last Kill dropped on Disney+ on Monday and immediately took heat online for a rooftop-throw shot that fans clipped and ridiculed for looking like a PlayStation 3 cutscene. The Hollywood Reporter and Gizmodo separately got the actual breakdown from a production source: Jon Bernthal performed the top of the fall himself, his stunt double took the impact onto a crate below, and the comp work added a face replacement so Bernthal lands in the shot rather than the double. In other words, the unit pulled the move off in-camera — the part that read as "CG" is a face replacement and a slow-mo/camera-shake finish layered on a practical hit. From the stunt side, the choices behind the shot are the textbook ones — actor takes the launch, double takes the impact, faces are reconciled in post; the lesson in the backlash is how unforgiving viewers are when the finish on a face-replacement plate doesn't match the body work underneath.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter — Marvel's 'Punisher: One Last Kill' Mocked for "Unfinished" VFX Shot, Audio Issues · Gizmodo — Here's the Real Deal With That Viral Shot From Punisher: One Last Kill · ScreenRant — Punisher's Controversial VFX Shot Is Actually A Real In-Camera Stunt
Max Huang on Mortal Kombat II: Fight Philosophy and Jackie Chan Stunt Team Roots
Posted: May 8, 2026
Variety sits down with Max Huang — Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat II — about coming up through the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and the choreography work that anchors the sequel. Huang spent a year training in Shaolin Kung Fu under monk Shi Yan Lin specifically to deepen the role, and worked previs with second unit director Kyle Gardiner and fight coordinators Michael Lehr and Malay Kim roughly eight months before cameras rolled, sprinkling Wing Chun punches and Kung Lao's signature teleportation movements into sequences he'd had time to shape. He calls his approach "Creating Controlled Chaos" — choreography built to look reactive rather than rehearsed, with the razor-edged hat treated as an extension of the body, not a prop. The Liu Kang/Kung Lao dynamic, he says, was developed through extensive co-training with Ludi Lin to ground the partner work emotionally before it had to read as fight craft. Huang also previews two upcoming projects: "7 Dogs" with 87Eleven handling stunts under directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and "Kung Fu Deadly" with brother Lee Huang as action director.
Source: Variety — Max Huang on Mortal Kombat II, Jackie Chan and His Fight Philosophy
Patriot BTS Shows Practical Car Chase and Climax Crash Work
Posted: May 7, 2026
A making-of from Patriot dropped this week walks through the film's headline action — the now-talked-about Safari chase and the climax crash sequence — confirming the team ran them practically rather than as CGI builds. Coordinators planned the car-chase line for real impacts and used brand-new vehicles for several takes; the climactic crash itself was executed in-camera. The video lands alongside Stunt Silva's previous interview on coordinating Mohanlal's one-legged action, and reinforces the line director Mahesh Narayanan kept holding the team to: presenting the action as something the character could actually do, with VFX assistance reserved for clean-up rather than spectacle.
Source: Onmanorama — 'Patriot' BTS video showcases real stunt work behind car chase and climax scenes
Karl Urban on Mortal Kombat II Stunt Rehearsals: "Most Challenging Physical Work of My Career"
Posted: May 4–5, 2026
With Mortal Kombat II opening Friday, Warner Bros. has released its official Behind the Scenes featurette and Karl Urban is fronting a press round about the stunt prep that produced Johnny Cage. Urban told Inquirer Entertainment and PINKVILLA that he was driven straight from Brisbane airport to a stunt rehearsal on arrival in Australia — bags still in hand — and described the work with stunt coordinator Jade Amantea, 2nd unit stunt coordinator Damien Bryson, and fight coordinator Chan Griffin as "the most challenging physical undertaking" of his career. The Cage splits move, performed practically rather than rigged, was the line he says broke him. The featurette also profiles cast training under fight choreography that leans on long takes and close-frame martial arts rather than the cut-around coverage typical of game adaptations.
Source: Mortal Kombat 2 — Official Behind the Scenes Featurette (YouTube) · Inquirer Entertainment — Karl Urban recalls 'most challenging' training for Mortal Kombat II · PINKVILLA — Karl Urban talks martial arts training for Mortal Kombat II
Kiwi Olympic Kayaker Doubles For Charlize Theron in Netflix's Apex
Posted: May 3, 2026
New Zealand five-time Olympian and silver medallist Luuka Jones-Yaxley details how she was brought on to double for Charlize Theron in the whitewater kayaking sequences of Netflix's action film Apex, which premiered on Netflix on Friday. Jones-Yaxley and fellow Kiwi paddler River Mutton spent 10 days shooting on rivers near Hokitika, Haast and Wānaka in January 2025 — long, technical lines that the film's coordinators wanted run by paddlers at international race level rather than rigged for an actor. Beyond the doubling itself, Jones-Yaxley walked Theron through how to read and recover in real whitewater, which is the part of the job that doesn't show up on the call sheet but ends up on screen.
Source: Newstalk ZB — Luuka Jones-Yaxley, Kiwi Olympian, on doubling for Charlize Theron in Netflix's Apex
Background: RNZ — Kiwi Olympian Luuka Jones-Yaxley lands Hollywood role as Charlize Theron stunt double
Dee Bryant on Doubling A-List Actresses and the AI Pressure Squeeze
Posted: May 2, 2026
NBC News profiled stunt performer Dee Bryant, whose recent credits include doubling Kerry Washington in the high-speed boat chase in Shadow Force — work that is part of the picture's stunt ensemble awards push this season. Bryant has built a career doubling Angela Bassett, Kerry Washington, and Regina King across film and television, and used the interview to flag what she sees as the next industry squeeze on stunt employment: AI replacement work, which she described as "CGI on crack" in terms of the volume of doubling and rigging gigs it's poised to absorb.
Source: NBC News — On the Lot: Hollywood newsletter featuring Dee Bryant
David Holmes Develops Stage Play About Harry Potter Stunt Career and On-Set Accident
Posted: May 1, 2026
David Holmes, the British acrobat and stunt performer who doubled for Daniel Radcliffe across all eight Harry Potter films, is workshopping a new stage play about his life as a young stunt performer and the on-set accident during stunt rehearsals for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 that left him paralyzed from the chest down at age 25.
The play, titled The Boy Who Lived, has been in workshop sessions this week at the Olivier Award-winning Kiln Theatre in Kilburn, North West London. Holmes plans to perform as himself, with a small ensemble cast playing his parents and a younger version of David from his early acrobat days. The production looks back at specific Potter stunt sequences and how they were rigged and performed, told from inside the stunt department rather than from the actor's point of view. The play has been adapted by Philip Wilson, who will also direct, and is targeting a 2027 debut at the Kiln.
For working stunt performers, the project sits at the intersection of two ongoing conversations the community keeps having: how rehearsal and rigging risk gets managed on franchise productions, and how the people who actually do the work get to tell their own stories. Holmes has spent the last several years pushing on both fronts — through the HBO documentary The Boy Who Lived and the Cunning Stunts podcast he co-hosts with Radcliffe, which interviews stunt performers about how specific scenes were built.
Sources:
Deadline — David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe's Potter Stunt Double, In Play Of His Life
BroadwayWorld — Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter Stunt Double Is Developing Play About Life Before and After On-Set Accident
Contenders TV — John Koyama on Closing Out The Boys
Posted: April 27–28, 2026
Supervising stunt coordinator and 2nd unit director John Koyama joined showrunner Eric Kripke and cast members Jessie T. Usher and Karen Fukuhara on stage at Deadline's 2026 Contenders Television event to talk through the work going into the fifth and final season of The Boys. Koyama has been the engine room behind the show's signature gore-soaked set pieces since season one. Putting the supervising stunt coordinator on the Contenders panel — alongside the showrunner and stars — is the kind of public framing the working stunt community has been pushing for: stunt design treated as authorship, not as a service department. With a stunt category coming to the Oscars in 2027, expect to see more coordinators platformed at TV awards events the same way.
Deadline — Eric Kripke on the end of The Boys · Deadline — Contenders Television 2026 lineup
Vulture Stunt Awards Go Quiet After Eight-Year Run
Posted: April 27, 2026
Midwest Film Journal published a long look at the apparent shutdown of the Vulture Stunt Awards, which for years filled the gap left by the Oscars and SAG-AFTRA's slow-walked recognition of stunt work. According to the piece, voters were solicited for nominations on January 1, 2026, then never heard back — and four months later there are no published nominees and no ceremony on the calendar. For working coordinators and performers, Vulture's awards were one of the few outlets that consistently named names: not just the best ensemble, but the best fight, the best fall, the best vehicle gag. Losing that publicly visible scoreboard right as the Academy is finally building its own stunt category leaves a noticeable hole in awards-season coverage of the craft.
Midwest Film Journal — Whither the Vulture Stunt Awards?
Apex — Stunt Team and Climbing Coach Behind Charlize Theron's Survival Thriller
April 24, 2026
Baltasar Kormákur's Apex lands on Netflix today, and the stunt department's fingerprints are all over the film's survivalist set pieces. Director Kormákur leaned on specialists rather than CGI: pro climber Beth Rodden was brought on as climbing coach, training Charlize Theron through November 2024 for the film's big-wall work. For the Class IV-V whitewater sequences, the production hired New Zealand kayakers Luuka Jones-Yaxley (Olympic slalom paddler) and River Mutton (extreme kayaking specialist) to double Theron through a 10-day shoot on the rivers around Hokitika, Haast and Wānaka. Stadium work was completed at Penrith Whitewater Stadium before the unit moved to the Blue Mountains for cliff and bush sequences. Reviewers have singled out the water and climbing work as the film's best material — the kind of outcome stunt teams consistently deliver when production commits to real-world doubles over digital fixes.
Climbing Magazine — Coach Beth Rodden · RNZ — Luuka Jones-Yaxley as stunt double · The Cinemaholic — Doubles breakdown · THR Review · Deadline Review
Infiltrate — Stunt Performers Elevate Low-Budget Actioner
Posted: April 10, 2026
James Mark's action thriller Infiltrate landed on VOD this week and reviews highlight the stunt work as the film's strongest asset. Director James Mark, himself a stuntman turned filmmaker, enlisted brother Chris Mark as stunt coordinator, fight choreographer, and 2nd unit director. Lead Orphée Ladouceur-Nguyen (a trained martial artist and stunt performer) and Kickboxer franchise star Alain Moussi deliver a brutal final showdown that critics are calling the standout sequence. Reviewers note the choreography shines brightest when the camera holds steady and lets the performers work — a recurring challenge on indie budgets where jittery camerawork sometimes undermines skilled stunt teams.
Screen Anarchy Review · Fortress of Solitude Review · Bulletproof Action Review
The Furious — Kenji Tanigaki's Martial Arts Epic Hits US Theaters May 29
Posted: April 7
Trailer released: March 24
Director Kenji Tanigaki — the legendary stunt coordinator and fight choreographer behind Flash Point, Raging Fire, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, and Hollywood's Blade II — brings his third directorial outing to US theaters on May 29. The film features a pan-Asian ensemble including Indonesia's Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian (both from The Raid), Thailand's Jeeja Yanin, and Brian Le (Everything Everywhere All at Once). Tanigaki's pedigree as a fight choreographer makes this one of the most anticipated action films for stunt fans in 2026. Currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from 20 critic reviews after its TIFF premiere.