Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien's award-winning graphic novel from First Second, American Born Chinese, is being adapted for the Disney+ streaming service, and some of the world's biggest superstars are now attached to the project. After teaming up for the Marvel Studios' film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Michelle Yeoh and her man in the director's chair Destin Daniel Cretton are back to lead an international cast on the Disney+ fantastical series American Born Chinese.
20th Television is producing American Born Chinese for Disney Branded Television, and it will begin production this month in Los Angeles. For the series, Yeoh's leading an all-star cast including Daniel Wu (Reminiscence, Tomb Raider), Ben Wang (MacGyver), Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once and as a child, he starred in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), Chin Han (Mortal Kombat, The Dark Knight), Yeo Yann Yann (Wet Season), and Sydney Taylor (Just Add Magic). Also on the cast list is former Taekwondo champion Jim Liu.
The genre-hopping action-comedy is adapted from the gorgeous graphic novel about growing up Chinese-American and as a member of the diverse Asian diaspora across the country. The comic was a National Book Award finalist and won both the American Library Association’s Printz Award, an award recognizing the year’s best book for teens, and the Eisner Award, which recognizes excellence in the comic book industry. Yang also received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 2016.
Kelvin Yu (Bob’s Burgers, Central Park) has signed on as the showrunner of American Born Chinese, with Cretton directing and executive producing the adaptation alongside Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan, Erin O’Malley, Asher Goldstein, and Yang. Kelvin Yu and author Charles Yu (Interior Chinatown, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe) write the series.
Actors Cast in Lead Roles for American Born Chinese
Yeoh is an iconic actress whose previous film work includes Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Crazy Rich Asians, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. II, and James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar sequels and the upcoming Everything Everywhere All at Once. Her television credits include playing Captain Philippa Georgiou on Star Trek: Discovery, and on the sometime-in-the-future spin-off series about Section 31, as well as the upcoming The Witcher: Blood Origin.
In the American Born Chinese adaptation, Yeoh will play Guanyin. As Deadline explains, Yeoh’s character, Guanyin, “is an unassuming auntie who helps her nephew Wei-Chen navigate the challenges of American high school while maintaining her secret identity as the all-powerful Buddhist bodhisattva of Compassion.”
Following the story of the graphic novel, the series will focus on Jin Wang, an average American teen "who is struggling to carve out exactly who he’s supposed to be socially and culturally." But when a new boy from Taiwan joins his class on the first day of the new school year, Jin doesn't want to be associated with a newcomer like him (caving to the social pressures of wanting to fall in love in with an all-American girl). Eventually, even more worlds collide as Jin is unknowingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods. Who is the Monkey King? Is he ready to join the ranks of the immortal gods in heaven or is there even any place in heaven for a monkey life himself? Exploring themes of identity, culture, and family, American Born Chinese is an action-packed coming-of-age adventure, and playing the leading role of Jin Wang is Wang. Wu is playing the role of Sun Wukong, “The Monkey King.”
As for the rest of the cast, Yann Yann plays Jin’s mom, Christine Wang, "a strong-willed, opinionated woman with a sly wit, who loves her family deeply." Han plays Jin’s father Simon, described as "a hard-working, devoted father and husband who is bumping up against the “bamboo ceiling” at his job." In addition, Quan plays Freddy Wong, "a fictional character from a popular mid-1990s sitcom." Finally, Liu plays Jin’s confident Wei-Chen, and Taylor plays Amelia, a friendly “all-American” girl who is Jin’s classmate and crush.