{"id":315857,"date":"2026-02-25T03:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315857\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T03:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:55:09","slug":"how-the-copenhagen-test-reminds-simu-liu-and-melissa-barrera-of-hitman-splinter-cell-and-goldeneye-ign-fan-fest-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315857\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Copenhagen Test Reminds Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera of Hitman, Splinter Cell, and Goldeneye | IGN Fan Fest 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing Simu Liu knows, it\u2019s how to make an epic action scene. The star of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings<\/a>, Barbie<\/a>, and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday<\/a> has performed in some pretty intense on-screen showdowns. But none of those were quite like what he did for The Copenhagen Test, the spy thriller series now streaming on Peacock. <\/p>\n

I sat down with Liu along with his co-star Melissa Barrera (Scream VI, Abigail) and The Copenhagen Test\u2019s stunt team as part of IGN Fan Fest to break down the mechanics of and inspirations for the show\u2019s high-octane action scenes. <\/p>\n

While the stunts in The Copenhagen Test are grounded and brutal compared to the more fantastical work Liu has done in the MCU, they remind him of some pretty big video games he\u2019s a fan of.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Copenhagen Test] really reminds me of Hitman,\u201d Lius says. \u201cEvery mission, the whole thing is to avoid detection. I remember I was playing the game, there was a detective meter and you would walk around and you would have to just blend in with people and not arouse suspicion, and then just sneak off at the perfect point where nobody was watching. [Also] Splinter Cell. He is not really covert, but you are supposed to be sneaking around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Copenhagen Test follows Alexander Hale (Liu), an intelligence analyst who discovers his brain has been \u201chacked,\u201d which gives a shadowy agency access to everything he sees and hears. Along the way he encounters Michelle (Barrera), a character who\u2019s not everything she first appears to be. <\/p>\n

For her part, Barrera says she considers a famous N64 spy game a spiritual sibling to the show. \u201cI used to love playing Goldeneye and it was all POV,\u201d Barrera says. \u201cIt was like, the gun [is] right there! [Likewise, The Copenhagen Test] would would be such a thrilling anxiety-inducing game. Can you imagine?\u201d<\/p>\n

Among The Copenhagen Test\u2019s many knock-down, drag-out fight scenes, several stand apart. One is early in the season where Liu and Barrera\u2019s characters team up to fight a horde of bad guys in a book store. Later in the series, they face off against each other during a Mr. and Mrs. Smith-inspired brawl in an apartment kitchen. Key to making those moments realistic was preparation. Enter the show\u2019s stunt coordinator James Mark and fight coordinator Chris Mark. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven on Melissa’s days off, she’s constantly asking to come in and train,\u201d Chris Mark says. \u201cAnd one of the things I noticed is when we were teaching her the fight choreography, we would show her the moves and stuff, but she wanted to know how to do them for real. So her work ethic was incredible. It\u2019s very rare to see in a lot of actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe acting and the storytelling that goes beyond the physical fight is really cool to be able to do together,\u201d Barrera says. \u201cThat’s why I wanted to train so much because I didn’t want to punch Simu accidentally. I just wanted to drill it so that we could do it together. And that was the fun part of that day because we actually got to be in it together. They didn’t let me do a fall and I was like, \u2018I can do the fall!\u2019 And they were like, \u2018No, you’re not going to do the fall.\u2019 And then Simu ended up getting kicked in the face, but not by me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy time we got to the finale sequence,\u201d James Mark says, \u201cwe got more time than any of the other fight scenes. And it was a difficult sequence and complex for both [Simu and Melissa]. Melissa had to do a ton in that she was there almost every day for that sequence. And it’s exhausting. It’s physically and mentally draining and I think we were doing it at night as well, so you’re on overnights. It is a great product. They really brought it, they put in the work and I’m really proud of that scene and what the team accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liu says that, while The Copenhagen Test\u2019s fights were grueling, he appreciated that they were different from action sequences he\u2019s participated in before. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor Shang-Chi, the action language is very different,\u201d Liu says. \u201cIt’s very wuxia and wushu inspired, so there’s a lot of flourishes. There’s a lot of very stylized movements and parries that you wouldn’t see in a street fight. Whereas I feel like Alexander’s world and the world of spies is very much rooted in military tactics. And I think that’s where we started with Chris and James giving us kind of a palette of moves. We were really leaning into elbows and knees and using the environment. And if you happened to not have any superpowers or didn’t know kung fu, this is what you would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Copenhagen Test is streaming now on Peacock. <\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more IGN Fan Fest this week including two days of livestreams Wednesday and Thursday with more than 80 exclusive reveals from Mortal Kombat II, Crimson Desert, LEGO Batman, and more.<\/p>\n

Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He’s spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there\u2019s one thing Simu Liu knows, it\u2019s how to make an epic action scene. The star of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-315857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}