Martial Arts Spotlight: Scott Adkins

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Whether you’ve seen Undisputed, Universal Soldier Regeneration, Accident Man or Hard Target 2. Chances are you’ve come across Scott Adkins at some point. When the Boyka actor is outside of playing the main Protagonist in martial arts movies, He’s featured in some big-screen Hollywood blockbusters usually playing a villain or skilled bad guy Henchman in such movies as Doctor Strange, Expendables, Grimsby, Zero Dark Thirty and Ip Man 4. Here we take a closer look at the movie-making machine and martial arts superstar Scott Adkins. He also featured on my martial arts stars who deserve more recognition list.

Scott Adkins Early Life

Scott Edward Adkins was born in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England on 17th June 1976. He is of Spanish descent. Like myself he first became interested in martial arts from Bruce Lee movies, even erecting a shrine to him in his parents’ garage. He started studying Judo aged 10 with his brother and dad. Eventually, they stopped but he continued. He then moved onto Taekwondo, receiving a black belt aged 19. At the time he was also studying Kickboxing under Anthony Jones, eventually becoming an instructor for the Professional Karate Association (PKA). Aside from studying Judo, Kickboxing, and Taekwondo. Scott Adkins has also studied, Capoeira, Krav maga, Jeet Kune Do (JKD), and Wu Shu kung-fu. Even now he still attends martial arts events and does seminars.

Before becoming a martial arts star, Adkins had extra and bit-part roles in British tv shows such as Dangerfield, City Central, Doctors, EastEnders and even Holby City. Holby City being after Undisputed 2 when he’s become quite established. Shocking to think he’s gone from Boyka to Holby City.

Movie Career

His first movie role was in a Hong Kong martial arts movie called Dei Seung Chui Keung (2001) and then the sequel to the Jet Li classic Black Mask, Black Mask 2. He was Spotted by Head of the Hong Kong Stuntmen Association and director Wei Tung and Bey Logan, Adkins achieved his dream and got to work in Hong Kong with some of Hong Kong cinema’s leading action directors including Woo-ping Yuen, Corey Yuen, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo and the legendary Jackie Chan.

Returning to England, acting roles started coming in such as EastEnders, Mile High, Holly Oaks, and Holby City. During this time Hollywood would come calling and he had roles in The Medallion with Jackie Chan and Unleashed with Jet Li.

Scott Adkins’s true big break came With Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing opposite Michael Jai White as Boyka. All due respect to White but Boyka stole the show. Everyone wanted to know who this crazy, angry Russian was with amazing gymnastics kicks.

Moving up the movie role list, after a microscopic part in The Bourne Ultimatum and playing the speechless Dead Pool in X-men Origins: (Wolverine). Yes, that end fight with Sabretooth and Wolverine was Scott Adkins, he finally started getting main protagonist roles such as Casey Bowmen in Ninja and Boyka once again in Undisputed 3: Redemption. Later on he would return as Casey Bowman in the awesome Ninja 2: Shadow of a tear.

Eventually, Scott Adkins would star alongside one of his childhood heroes Jean Claude Van Damme in Assassination Games, The Expendables 2 and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning.

Finally, Scott Adkins gets the marvel universe call for Doctor Strange opposite Benedict Cumberbatch as Lucian, one of Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) zealots. He doesn’t have a super amount of screen time but does have quite a long and epic one on one battle with Doctor Strange himself Benedict Cumberbatch.

Later on, after many fan requests, Adkins would return as Boyka in Boyka: Undisputed (Undisputed 4). He then played an unhinged psycho in Avengement. There’s also Triple Threat with fellow monsters of the martial arts world Tony Yaa, Iko Uwais, Michael Jai White, and Tiger Chen. Of course, there’s his much-anticipated appearance going up against non-other than Donnie Yen in Ip Man 4.

In my personal opinion, the marvel universe or even the DC universe needs to come knocking again as he could play any superhero. He did actually audition for Batman in Batman vs Superman but bizarrely they went with Ben Affleck not that Affleck didn’t nail it but Adkins would have been awesome as the bat.

At the time of this article, Adkins has just completed Legacy of Lies. Castle falls, The Debt Collector 2 and Seized are all in post-production due to be released this year 2020. Remember how I said he’s a movie-making machine.

Scott Adkins has 2 children with wife Lisa Adkins. You can catch many of his movies on Netflix such as Avengement, The Debt Collector, Triple Threat, and Boyka: Undisputed.

Check out his filmography and an awesome tribute video of him below.

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