If you were a fan of last year’s Everything Everywhere All At Once, which was recently nominated for 11 Academy Awards then you might be interested in Disney+’s new action comedy series American Born Chinese, featuring a number of actors from EEAAO.
The show is an adaptation of a 2006 graphic novel of the same name, and much like Everything Everywhere is a mixture of genres and focuses on similar themes. Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan, all nominated this year for their roles in the multiverse sci-fi film, appear in American Born Chinese, and it’s set to debut later in 2023.
Ben Wang (MacGyver) stars in the central role of Jin Wang, a schoolboy struggling with both his studies and home life. The son of Chinese immigrants, he finds it hard growing up and fitting into America and in with his classmates. To deal with his emotions and feelings of isolation from other children his age, he retreats into a fantasy world featuring characters from Chinese mythos, predominantly The Monkey King, from one of the oldest Chinese fables. The Monkey King/Sun Wukong is played by Daniel Wu (Into the Badlands, Westworld), and is accompanied by Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy, played by Michelle Yeoh.
Ke Huy Quan appears in the show meanwhile as Freddy Wong, with Stephanie Hsu playing the role of Shiji Niangninang, another goddess featured in Chinese religion and mythology. Yeo Yann Yann (Singapore Dreaming) Chin Han (The Dark Knight, Contagion), Poppy Liu (Better Call Saul, Hacks) also star. The show is created by Kelvin Yu And Charles Yu, who’s worked on Bob’s Burgers and Westworld respectively, and actress Lucy Liu will direct an episode. The series doesn’t have a full trailer yet, but it does have a preview featurette of the production, showcasing short clips from the show and behind the scenes, along with snippets from an interview with Michelle Yeoh: “It’s a lot of fun, a lot of magic… there’s a lot of badass action”.
For more on the latest flicks, check out our January best of streaming guide.
American Born Chinese is yet to receive a definitive release date, but it’s likely it’ll arrive in mid to late 2023, with filming having finished mid-2022. In the meantime, you can watch the official Disney+ featurette above.