In keeping up with the burgeoning potential of today’s independent film and stunt-talented creatives, Monday saw the premiere of actor and filmmaker Aaron Toney’s (Wolf Warrior 2, Debt Collectors, One More Shot) passion project, Throne: The Liforian Odyssey. The nine-minute shortfilm marks the latest phase in Toney’s proof of concept which began roughly a decade ago with the birth of a spectacular, action-packed martial arts short.
“Even though this has been such a long journey, I know it’s still like, the beginning, because no one knows about this,” said Toney, who took to speaking with viewers while livestreaming the project on YouTube on Monday. “We need to go ahead and build a fanbase because, this is a brand new original IP, so we’re putting this out so that people can know that it exists.”
Toney’s Thone: The Liforian Odyssey, is a continued evolution of that IP, now with updated costumes, weapons and visuals to bevy up its potential. The goal is a television series with a half-hour long format, one that’s already been written with ideas already in place, some of which Toney teased on Monday.
“This first season is pretty awesome,” he said. “I’ve written a lot of the stuff that I think helps tell the story of our lead characters and gets you very excited to jump into the rest of the world, actually. You kinda scratch the surface with the first five or six characters in the first season, and then it sets up season two really well to kinda go into other avenues like Halvon Castle and other [sic] regions”.
Toney also goes into the creation of “Throne,” discussing the central hero’s weapon, “Yulia” and its design process, as well as the substance behind the character and forthcoming story which he hopes he will get to tell in a future production.
“I was talking to a couple of people last night, and it’s evolved over time but it’s definitely a show about finding your sorta peace with what your purpose truly is, and sustainability,” said Toney. “Sustainability in a world where – we would definitely benefit from things that we’re gonna learn in this show about taking the journey into a new land and hitting the restart button on life. In a nutshell, the show is definitely about purpose, about being truthful to yourself, and making peace with your trauma, to say the least…”
That journey otherwise continues in Throne: The Liforian Odyssey, in which Gabriel (Toney) and his trusty sword, “Yulia” (Jennifer Holcombe) square up with Karana (Yoshi Sudarso) in an explosive desert battle between rivals. There’s more Throne to share if Toney and the team at Halvon Corp. Entertainment can help it, but the momentum starts with the viewers, and anyone with a platform willing to talk up Toney’s vision.
I’ve actually been fawning for this one since Toney teased the shortfilm over a decade ago, and he and I, and anyone paying attention to the landscape, have seen plenty of conceptual proofs for stories come and go to no avail. It’s hard to grow and nourish something from scratch, something Toney can certainly attest to with this project.
Personally, I would be cool with “Throne” not getting left on a shelf somewhere untouched and left to stagnate. The nods of inspiration to anime and martial arts niches are all over the place here, attuned and enriched with palpability akin to properties like Into The Badlands or even Rurouni Kenshin, given everything Toney applies in the short below, and discussed on Monday.
I wish I had Alfred Gough and Miles Millar on the line myself. In the meantime, check out Throne: The Liforian Odyssey in the player below and visit HalvonCorp.com for more!
