Martial arts fans have thrilled to Marko Zaror’s agility and fighting skill for nearly two decades in his low-budget Chilean martial arts hits like “Kiltro”, “Mirageman” “Redeemer”, and “Fist of the Condor”. Additionally, Marko has also frequently been seen matching Scott Adkins at his flipping and kicking best in “Undisputed 3: Redemption”
“Savage Dog”, while Marko also achieved a huge mainstream breakthrough in 2023’s action powerhouse “John Wick: Chapter 4”. Marko’s latest martial arts-packed actioner, the newly released “Diablo”, re-teams him with both Scott and Marko’s frequent directorial partner, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, for some of the best action the three have delivered in recent memory!
In “Diablo”, Kris Chaney (Scott Adkins) arrives in Colombia and inexplicably abducts Elisa (Alanna De La Rossa), the teenage daughter of powerful Colombian crime boss Vicente (Lucho Velasquez). Despite the apparent kidnapping, Kris claims he was betrayed by Vicente during their days as bank robbers, and says he is trying to get Elisa away from his father’s ruthless criminal empire, on the promise he made to Elisa’s mother before her death. While Vicente sends his henchmen after Kris and Elisa, Kris finds himself battling off another enemy, the shadowy one-handed assassin El Corvo (Marko Zaror), who has his own dark backstory and enmity with Vicente.
Today, KFK sits down with Marko to talk about the making of “Diablo”, working with his frequent collaborators Scott Adkins and Ernesto Diaz Espinoza on the action-packed martial arts thrill-ride, and also a few upcoming projects he has on the docket!
Hello Marko, welcome back to Kung Fu Kingdom! Great to speak to you again, and hope you’re doing well!
Hi Brad, I’m doing great, thanks for having me today!
Awesome, Marko! Well, let’s dive right into the making of “Diablo”. What can you share about how the movie came about for you?
Well, this was a co-creation with Scott and Ernesto. We wanted to do a movie together with Scott after we had done many movies together. I told Scott he had to come to Chile and meet my team and work with my director and friend Ernesto, and Scott said “Let’s do it!” Then we started throwing some ideas around and put together this project. Then Craig Baumgarten, the producer, put it together for us, and it happened, and it’s so cool, man!
So, in “Diablo”, your character is the antagonist El Corvo, and he’s on his own revenge mission against the movie’s main villain, Vicente. How was El Corvo different from other villains you’ve portrayed in the past?
Well, from the beginning, when we created the movie with Ernesto, he always wanted to add this. He’s a very big fan of Asian cinema and filmmakers like Takashi Miike and movies like “Audition” and “I Saw The Devil”, and they have these weird characters and atmosphere that is kind of like a horror movie. We wanted to add this into the more traditional action movies that we see, and we found that we could do it through the El Corvo character, and we went for it.
At the beginning, it was a risk. We didn’t know how it was going to work out, how it’s going to be received, but we just went for it. El Corvo was a co-creation with Ernesto to try to decide how far we should take him, and then, I started discovering this guy, like how he walks, how he dresses, and other things, and it was a fun process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FGKmTbiAtM
El Corvo also brings another weapon to the table, which is his metal hand which conceals a deadly hook underneath of it. Did El Corvo’s unusual tool of combat complicate the fight choreography on “Diablo” or create any added safety risks on the fight scenes?
Well, I think yes and no, because while it was hard, at the same time, that’s what made it unique, and it added something different for my character and the fight choreography. Once you create a character and you create their choreography, the way I like to design action is to decide “What’s my character? What’s my motivation?”, and that’s how you start adding the movements. It’s not just “Let’s add movement, just because”, and in this case, we have this element that is already making things complicated as a practical thing, but also, that gives you an opportunity to create something unique and different, if you focus the choreography and understand this element as something important. So, I think for me, those are the things that are worth the challenge, because it gives you the opportunity to create something more original.
“Diablo” is also your fourth movie with Scott Adkins, and your third movie where you have fight scenes together. How did you and Scott approach your fight scenes in “Diablo” differently compared to your work on “Undisputed 3” and “Savage Dog”?
It was just different characters, different story, it’s more real, more ground-and-pound, down-to-Earth, and then you have this character who has this weapon that you need to be careful with. So, that already is a big element to create something totally different from what we’ve done before. In “Undisputed 3”, we were two fighters in a ring, and it’s a totally different scenario, different characters, and then in “Savage Dog”, I was a Savate fighter, and you’re working with that type of movement and choreography, and at the same time, it was brutal and very real. But here, you’re fighting with a psychopath that has this element that you have to be careful with, and at the same time, we want to keep it very grounded, very real, because the story is a very emotional story, and you don’t want to be doing choreography for its own sake, you want to be able to tell a story through the fight, so it’s a totally different approach.
So, what would you say were some of you favourite moments or experiences from the making of “Diablo”?
Wow, man, it’s everything! Me and Ernesto, we started doing movies when we were in high school for fun with our friends, and then, we moved to L.A. about 20 years ago, and now we’re premiering our Hollywood movie, and we’re like “This is crazy!” This movie means so much for us, it’s just magic. And my friendship with Scott has been for years. I met this guy from the other side of the world, and I can see myself in Scott. When I was a kid, 10, 15 years old training in the backyard and doing martial arts, Scott was doing the exact same thing. So, the first time we connected and worked together on “Undisputed 3”, we’re like brothers and we share this passion, and having the opportunity to co-create this movie together is just always a blessing. So, this movie is such a special movie for us.
Most definitely! Well, as we prepare to sign off Marko, what are some other projects you have coming up after “Diablo”?
I have a movie coming up called “Affinity”, which is my first leading role in an American movie. Then I have Chilean movie called “Dancing in the Ring”, which tells the real-life story of a Chilean boxer in the 1940’s who had a fight with Joe Louis for the world title in Madison Square Garden. So, those two movies are both going to be released this year, and I’m really looking forward to that.
On that note, avoiding spoilers, but the ending of “Diablo” hints that this might not be the last the world has seen of El Corvo. Any chance we might see him again in a possible “Diablo 2”?
It depends on you guys! If you support the movie and like the movie, I would love to come back with El Corvo and tell the backstory, or continue the story forward. I would love to, for sure, but it depends on you guys, if you support the movie and get the executive and producers excited about wanting to continue this story, it would be awesome.
Totally agree, and we’d definitely love to see it! Thank you so much for your time today, Marko! It’s been a real pleasure speaking again, and good luck with the release of “Diablo” and all of your exciting upcoming action projects!
Thank you Brad, and thanks again for having me on Kung Fu Kingdom today!
