SHANG-CHI Director Destin Daniel Cretton Teams Up with Michelle Yeoh for AMERICAN BORN CHINESE Disney+ Series

Sang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton is reteaming with Michelle Yeoh for a new fantastical Disney+ series titled American Born Chinese. Yeoh will star alongside Ben Wang (MacGyver), Yeo Yann Yann (Wet Season), Chin Han (Mortal Kombat), Daniel Wu (Reminiscence), Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once, Goonies, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), former Taekwondo champion Jim Liu, and Sydney Taylor (Just Add Magic).

The series is described as a “genre-hopping action comedy,” and it’s adapted from Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel. Writer and producer Kelvin Yu (Bob’s Burgers, Central Park) serves as executive producer and showrunner on the series. Cretton will direct and also executive produce.

Yeoh will play Guanyin, “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. The series focuses on Jin Wang, an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his home life. When he meets a new foreign student on the first day of the school year, even more worlds collide as Jin unwittingly is entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods. The action-packed coming-of-age adventure explores identity, culture and family.”

Wang will be playing Jin Wang, “the American teen whose parents immigrated from Taiwan and who is struggling to carve out exactly who he’s supposed to be, socially and culturally. 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, a hard-working, devoted father and husband who is bumping up against the ‘bamboo ceiling’ at his job.”

Wu takes on the role of “Sun Wukong ‘The Monkey King,’ the legendary, all-powerful god of the Chinese epic Journey to the West, who enters our world in search of his son. Quan plays Freddy Wong, a fictional character from a popular mid-1990s sitcom. Liu plays Jin’s confident friend Wei-Chen, a teen who has just arrived in the United States, whose sweet demeanor belies the deeper mystery of his true identity. And Taylor plays Amelia, a friendly ‘all-American’ girl who is Jin’s classmate and crush.”

I’m not familiar with the graphic novel, but this sounds like it will make for a fun series worth checking out.

Source: Deadline