The Continental matched up Malignant’s contortionist with an MMA fighter for one of the best fights of the year

07.10.2023 - 17:05 / polygon.com / Best

Peacock’s John Wick spinoff, The Continental,has had a secret weapon lurking in the shadows. And in the third and final episode of the limited series, she was finally unleashed.

That weapon is Ukrainian actress, model, dancer, and contortionist Marina Mazepa, best known as the physical performer behind the unforgettable Gabriel from James Wan’s Malignant. In The Continental, she’s Gretel, one half of the hard-to-miss assassin twins Hansel and Gretel. Their bowl cuts and expressionless faces have distinguished them as promisingly cool opponents for our protagonists from the start. We had seen Gretel casually doing the splits around the hotel, but there weren’t many other hints to tip viewers off to Mazepa’s unique set of skills or how they would be deployed.

That all changes in one of the finale’s climactic fights, where Gretel takes on Yen (Nhung Kate) on the rooftop of The Continental, delivering over-the-head scorpion kicks and bending her limbs in ways that seem physically impossible, in a scene reminiscent of Day Shift’s contortionist vampires. It’s a reveal by design, action director Larnell Stovall (who credits Day Shift director J.J. Perry as a mentor) told Polygon.

“We held back on the contortion stuff as much as we could, because I wanted that to have its own story,” Stovall says. “You didn’t know what she truly brought to the table until that fight scene. So I’m grateful [the writers] held her character back a lot. And then all of a sudden, you’re like, Oh, shit, this is what she’s capable of? But if you saw that throughout the whole time, there probably wouldn’t have been as many surprises.”

The fight starts 72 minutes into the 97-minute finale and lasts for four glorious minutes, beginning with a Western standoff as the two glare at each other on the roof of the hotel before discarding their respective weapons and silently agreeing to a close-quarters fight.

Suddenly, the two charge at each other, as Yen goes for a takedown around Gretel’s waist, sending her to the ground. This fighting style reflects Nhung Kate’s MMA background — she has fought in cage matches, and trains with her partner and fellow martial artist Johnny Trí Nguyễn (Da 5 Bloods)— and provided an interesting opportunity for Stovall and his team to juxtapose the two actors’ backgrounds as physical performers.

“You take each fighter individually, you work with them, you find what makes them who they are as a fighter, and then you build upon that,” Stovall says. “Once you have that solid base, then you can bring them together. Now they can dance, because you deliver the safety elements. You’ve created the story, they’ve agreed upon it. And now when they get together, it makes it a lot easier for them both to agree on the