Gentle spoilers for the lethal first episode of Countdown are under, so be warned for those who haven’t but watched.
Whereas I’m personally most invested in seeing Jensen Ackles’ return as The Boys’ Soldier Boy within the superhero satire’s upcoming Vought Rebellion spinoff, the actor has one other high-stakes sequence that’ll hopefully hold his fanbase sated all through the summer time months. Ackles is heading up the dramatic thriller Countdown, whose first three episodes turned obtainable with an Amazon Prime subscription, with the remainder of the eps hitting the 2025 TV schedule weekly.
Ackles stars as LAPD detective Mark Meachum throughout what is probably going essentially the most hectic time of the investigator’s life. He’s pulled right into a job drive whose purpose is to not solely monitor down a assassin, but in addition to determine after which cease a large menace that’s concentrating on Los Angeles. To not point out his personal nagging medical challenge: Mark was identified with a mind tumor, so he’s racing the clock in each which means.
Regardless of his ailing well being, Mark doesn’t shrink back from getting his fingers soiled, and to that finish, Jensen Ackles didn’t balk at taking over the sequence’ stunts as a lot as doable, regardless of not precisely having everybody’s assured help on the set. Talking with Collider, the actor mentioned there have been some preliminary naysayers who didn’t grasp how real his eagerness was with reference to getting bodily within the function. In his phrases:
They’re like, ‘Oh, no means.’ They don’t need me to get damage as a result of it’s form of on them. So, I’d say that I really like that half. I really like the bodily facet of those characters that I’ve gotten to play. I wish to push the envelope on the stunts, and I wish to attempt to make it as gritty and as actual as doable.
Now, no judgment handed on any of the stunt coordinators or any producers who had been seemingly hesitant to provide Ackles full permission to handles any stunts he needed. It would not do anybody any good for the actor to by accident injure himself filming the primary episode if his character remains to be meant to seem like an motion hero for the remainder of the season. That is a particular worst-case state of affairs.
Ackles amusingly identified how others react at any time when he is holding his personal throughout a stunt sequence, saying:
What might go mistaken? In the meantime, they’re all holding their breath, hoping I don’t break an ankle or one thing. However, as I’ve gotten older, knowledge is now taking part in into the issues that I do and the issues that I’m keen to do. I additionally form of can form it now.
Understandably, with Ackles being in his mid-40s, he has a good suggestion of what sorts of motion sequences he is in a position to deal with, and which of them he is possibly keen to take a danger on. He is additionally at some extent in his profession the place, if he doubtlessly has an concept for how you can tweak a scene or stunt to lean extra into his favor, he has the clout to theoretically result in change.
It’s deepened my reference to my stunt double, I’ll inform you that a lot. I’d say I’m in all probability a little bit safer than I was, however that’s not saying a lot as a result of I used to be fairly dangerous in stunts.
Actors can typically develop distinctive pleasant relationships with their stunt doubles, and it is not unusual for particular pairs to proceed working collectively from one venture to the following. In any case, that form of partnership is one which revolves fully round belief, with each performers’ security on the heart of all of it. It is in all probability an excellent factor for all concerned that Ackles is extra risk-averse now than he was throughout Supernatural‘s heyday.
Past serving as a conventional drama between Ackles’ Soldier Boy performances, Countdown additionally serves as what might be considered one of co-star Eric Dane’s closing main TV roles after his ALS prognosis. (Ackles had nothing however reward for Dane on the sequence’ premiere screening occasion.) Solely time will inform what occurs there, and solely Amazon’s execs will be capable of inform whether or not or not Countdown will get a second season.
Countdown drops new episodes on Prime Video each Wednesday morning.