Fans of the arthouse martial arts dramedy, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, will be happy to see the reunion of the Wang family in the new Disney+ series, American Born Chinese. The show will reunite Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu. Disney has revealed a first look at the new series at this past weekend’s D23 Expo.
According to Deadline, the show is based on the graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, which sees the story mixing genres, from high school coming-of-age to fantastical martial arts Wuxia-type action. “American Born Chinese tells the story of Jin Wang (Ben Wang), an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his home life. When he meets a new student on the first day of the school year, even more worlds collide as Jin is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.”
Yeoh enthusiastically mentions in the new featurette, “It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of magic, it’s a lot of badass action. It is a magical ride, and that’s what Disney+ is all about.” Joining Yeoh will be star Ben Wang, Yeo Yann Yann as Christine Wang, Chin Han from Mortal Kombat as Simon Wang, Ke Huy Quan as Freddy Wong, Jimmy Liu as Wei-Chen, Sydney Taylor as Amelia, and Into the Badland’s Daniel Wu as Sun Wukong “The Monkey King.”
The director of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Destin Daniel Cretton, will be stepping into the director’s chair for the pilot and serving as the executive producer. He joins EP duties with Disney+ show Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. executive producers Jake Kasdan and Erin O’Malley, and Melvin Mar, Asher Goldstein, and Gene Luen Yang. The showrunner will be Bob’s Burgers’ Kelvin Yu. Film star Lucy Liu will also be guest directing an episode.
American Born Chinese will be available for streaming on Disney+ in 2023.
What do you think? Are you excited?