Hong Kong film star Daniel Wu has been cast as the lead in the upcoming martial arts series “Badlands,” AMC announced Friday.

The series, which is based on the classic Chinese tale “Journey to the West,” follows a ruthless warrior (Wu) and a young boy who take a dangerous journey together to find enlightenment.

“After working together with such a talented team of executive producers, writers and executives at AMC, I am excited for the opportunity to bring this character to life‎,” said Wu, who will also serve as an executive producer on the project, which was ordered straight to series with six one-hour episodes in July.

Emily Beecham (“28 Weeks Later”), Sarah Bolger (“The Tudors”) and Oliver Stark (“My Hero”) round out the cast. David Dobkin (“The Judge”) will be the director and co-executive producer, alongside series creators/showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar (“Shanghai Noon”) and executive producers Stephen Fung and Wu (“Tai Chi Zero”), Stacey Sher and Michael Shamberg (“Pulp Fiction”).

“Badlands” comes from AMC Studios and will be distributed internationally by Entertainment One Television (eOne).

The series is expected to premiere in late 2015 or early 2016.