‘Expecting the Unexpected’: Ronda Rousey writes a new kind of action hero

Her codename is “Mom.”

With a fake baby bump stuffed full of weapons, she’s earned a reputation as one of the deadliest hit-women alive. But just as she’s poised to rise in the criminal underworld, she makes a fateful choice: sleeping with a target, who also happens to be a top-ranked assassin.

What follows in Expecting the Unexpected (due out October 7 via AWA Studios) is a wild, bloody, and often hilarious mix of action, romance, and absurdity as Mom, now pregnant and hunted, battles waves of assassins while figuring out if she’s ready for the most daunting role of her life: motherhood.

It’s the kind of hook that sounds like it belongs on a movie poster, but instead it’s arriving as a graphic novel from none other than Ronda Rousey, former UFC and WWE champion and Hollywood star. For Rousey, who has made a career of defying expectations, this project represents a new chapter: not just as an action star on screen, but as the creator of one of the most delightfully unhinged action heroines in years.

From WrestleMania to ‘What If John Wick Was Pregnant?’

The spark for Expecting the Unexpected came during a career high point. Rousey was preparing for her WrestleMania main event when legendary wrestling manager Paul Heyman asked her a deceptively simple question: If you could star in any movie, what would it be? That question lingered for some time.

“It was the first time I thought, ‘What would I be the best at doing,’” Rousey said during a recent Zoom. “Not waiting for someone to bring me my greenlit dream project on a silver platter, but actually asking: who’s the character only I could play?”

Her answer was audacious: What if a pregnant woman was at the center of a martial arts action epic? She thought back to her favorite films, like Kill Bill, which famously skipped over the period when its heroine was pregnant and on the run.

“That’s the part I always wanted to see,” Rousey said with a  laugh. “What about when she was pregnant and the assassins were after her?”

From there, the concept evolved into something that was part action-thriller, part comedy of bodily functions.

“I always thought it was hilarious that John Wick never has a bodily function,” Rouse said. “But when you’re pregnant, it’s all bodily functions. What if every time she tried to find a bathroom, it was a battle?”

The absurdity, she admits, was irresistible.

“It’s like Die Hard on a boat, Die Hard in a building,” Rousey said. “This is John Wick with a pregnancy.”

Fighting as Storytelling

If the premise sounds outlandish, Rousey grounds it with an unusual level of detail drawn from her experience in the UFC and WWE. She’s spent her life treating fights as more than physical exchanges — they’re a form of storytelling.

“I wanted the fights to be the story,” Rousey said. “Too often, in film or comics, the story pauses for the fight. But in MMA or wrestling, the fight is the story — you’re showing character, stakes, and emotion through how it plays out.”

That meant scripting her fight scenes down to the finest detail, sometimes acting them out at a pro-wrestling school with friends. Crash pads became bathroom stalls, water bottles stood in for guns, and Rousey herself crawled and rolled to test choreography.

“It sounds ridiculous,” Rouse said. “But I had to see how it worked in real life before Mike [Deodato Jr.] could draw it.”

This meticulousness carried into the actual layouts. A running gag in the book sees Mom ambushed every time she tries to use the bathroom. But staging bathroom fights required careful planning.

“We had to draw a bird’s-eye view of where every stall and sink was,” Rousey said. “Otherwise the reader would get lost. I didn’t want anyone to flip through and wonder where they were. It had to feel like a coherent, lived-in space.”

Comedy, Romance, and Kill Shots

While the premise promises carnage, Rousey insists the book is as much a romantic comedy as it is an action story.

“The assassins are just distractions,” Rousey said. “The real story is two people trying to figure out if they can raise a child together.”

Her comedic sensibility, sharpened during her WWE tenure, shines across the book.

“Sometimes the fights are comic relief, [and] sometimes they’re deadly serious,” Rousey said. “But I love the idea that in the middle of this chaos, the characters are just trying to have a conversation about their future.”

Dream Casting, Easter Eggs, and Creative Freedom

Working with Deodato Jr. (also known for his gritty realism) gave Rousey’s vision a distinct visual identity. Perhaps too distinct at times.

“Mike has such an ability to capture likenesses that I had to tell him to dial it back,” Rousey said. “I’d say, ‘This looks exactly like the person I based it on — you’ve got to make it less exact.’”

But she eventually leaned into that instinct, too, populating the book with cameos. Her husband, Travis Browne, appears alongside Heyman, who granted permission to use his likeness as a villain. Marshawn Lynch is also snuck in as an Easter egg. Even Kickstarter backers who pledged at certain levels appear as assassins or extras.

“It became a kind of dream casting,” Rousey said. “Almost like I was storyboarding a movie and filling it with the people I’d want. It was fun to blur that line.”

Themes of Motherhood

For all the bloodshed and gags, Expecting the Unexpected reflects Rousey’s own anxieties about becoming a mother.

“It’s scary to bring life into a hostile world,” Rousey said.. “You wonder if you’re capable. The story mirrors that — at first Mom doesn’t think she can do it, but as she protects the baby, she realizes how much she wants to be a mom.”

She describes Mom as a heightened version of herself: braver, cooler, funnier in a crisis.

“She’s me, but turned up to 11 — like my wrestling persona, or all my favorite badass women in cinema rolled into one,” Rousey said. “She’s who I wish I could be.”

Manga, Martial Arts, and Comics Inspiration

Rousey cites Berserk and Dragon Ball Z as major influences, particularly their ability to make melee combat feel epic and layered. But she wanted to push that dynamic even further.

“In most comics, you see snippets of a fight and fill in the rest with your imagination,” Rousey said. “I wanted to show everything, like a storyboard for film. Every strike, every reaction.”

That vision meshed with Deodato’s martial arts background, creating pages that feel both cinematic and brutally authentic.

“There’s a two-page spread in the final battle that perfectly captures our collaboration,” Rousey said. “Every panel feels like a painting.”

A Sequel Already Written

Though Expecting the Unexpected marks her debut in comics, Rousey is already planning more.

“Every stage my husband and I go through as parents has a parallel in this world,” Rousey said.

She hints at a sequel that moves beyond the honeymoon stage of her characters’ relationship and into “the nitty gritty, itty bitty, titty” of parenting life. She laughs at her own phrasing, but the point is clear: the saga of Mom is just beginning.

What’s Next for Rousey in Comics?

Would Rousey ever want to write for Marvel or DC? She shakes her head.

“Those worlds are like religions,” Rousey said. “They deserve devotion, and I don’t think I could give it the respect it deserves. I’ve always been more of an indie comics lady.”

Still, she admits she’d leap at the chance to write in the Dragon Ball Z universe.

“I even wrote a fanfic about Vegeta’s mom,” Rousey said. “I tweaked it to make it original, but if they ever wanted it, I’d tweak it back.”

For now, she’s focused on carving out her own lane.

“This is my debut,” Rousey said. “It’s scary putting something you care about into the world. But I think for a first graphic novel, it’s great. And I’m proud of it.”

As she prepares to meet fans at New York Comic Con (October 9-12), Rousey remains ’s eager (and just a little nervous) to see how readers respond.

“It’s like showing people your kid,” Rousey said. “You think they’re beautiful, but you don’t know how others will see them. I just hope they love this as much as I do.”

Expecting the Unexpected is available wherever books and comics are sold starting October 7.