Vietnam — Johnny Tri Nguyen Action-Directs Spirit Guardians With More Than 100 Stunt Performers

• Johnny Tri Nguyen is the action director on the Vietnamese film Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor.
• His stunt department has more than 100 performers, with 40 sets, six months of prep and 83 shoot days.
• The film opens in Vietnam on August 28, 2026, and premieres in Toronto on September 18.

Posted: August 20, 2026

Johnny Tri Nguyen is action director on Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor, overseeing a stunt department of more than 100 performers on what is being billed as one of the largest productions in Vietnamese cinema. Nguyen also appears in the film, directed by Nguyen Phan Quang Binh and backed by BHD with Viettel Telecom's TV360.

The scale is the point for anyone tracking action work in Southeast Asia. The production built 40 large-scale sets across a six-month prep period and shot for 83 days — a schedule that lets a fight unit rehearse and re-block rather than choreograph on the day, which is what a stunt team of that size needs to work safely. Nguyen's own track record is the reason the credit reads the way it does: he came up as a stunt performer and fight choreographer in the US before returning to Vietnam and building the action grammar of The Rebel and Clash.

The film opens in Vietnam on August 28, 2026, and premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 18, 2026.

Source: M.A.A.C. — Johnny Tri Nguyen Stars In Vietnamese Historical Actioner Spirit Guardians

Learn more on IMDb: Johnny Tri Nguyen