Boxing Legend Chris John Steps Into Animation With 'Dragon's Dojo'
Indonesian boxing champion Chris John is heading into animation. Singapore's Silver Media Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the former featherweight titleholder to develop Dragon's Dojo, a mobile-first vertical animated series rooted in Indonesian folklore. Variety
The show casts John as an animated alter ego: head instructor and mentor at a martial arts academy that works with young people facing hardship. Production and release details have not yet been announced. The project is in development. Variety
Dragon's Dojo is the first chapter of what the partners are calling the ASERYA Asian Mythology Franchise — an interconnected universe planned to span animation, comics, games and merchandise. The co-production brings together Silver Media Group, Chris John, Indonesian TV executive Harun Kurniawan and Koollab Studios. Variety
Silver Media Group is led by founder and CEO Chan Gin Kai, a Golden Horse Award-winning producer. The company manages a portfolio of more than 1,500 intellectual property assets across film and animation. Its track record includes a prior set of memoranda of understanding with Los Angeles-based Ford Movie Group, signed at ScreenSingapore in 2013 to collaborate on East-meets-West filmmaking, as reported by Screen Daily.
A mobile-first vertical format means the series is designed to be watched on a phone in portrait mode, the way most people hold their devices — not the horizontal widescreen that traditional television and film use. That choice puts Dragon's Dojo squarely in the territory of short-form mobile content, where viewers scroll through bite-sized episodes on their phones rather than sitting down in front of a television.
For Chris John, the project marks a shift from the boxing ring to the creative side of entertainment. Known across Indonesia and the wider Asian boxing world for his long reign as WBA featherweight champion, he now lends his name and persona to a story aimed at younger audiences. The character he plays — a mentor guiding young people through difficulty — draws a straight line from his public identity as a fighter to the show's themes.
For fans of animation and Asian folklore, the ASERYA franchise framing means the partners are thinking beyond a single series. If Dragon's Dojo finds its audience, the plan already calls for the story to expand into comics, games and merchandise — a model familiar to anyone who has followed franchises built around animated properties. Whether that expansion happens will depend on how the first chapter lands with viewers.
No release date has been set.
