Announced back in October, Destin Daniel Cretton's Disney+ series American Born Chinese has just announced its main cast members. The upcoming graphic novel adaptation is set to reunite the director of Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings with one of its most prominent cast members: superstar Michelle Yeoh is joining the main cast of the fantasy series.
The action-comedy story follows a teenage boy who unwittingly finds himself in the middle of an epic battle between Chinese mythological gods – in the first week of school, nonetheless. Yeoh will play Guanyin, the boy’s aunt who helps her nephew get through high school while hiding her true identity as the all-powerful Buddhist bodhisattva of Compassion. American Born Chinese is just one of many (many, many) upcoming projects that the actress is involved in, including participating in the next four sequels to James Cameron's Avatar, and doing voice work for Minions: The Rise of Gru. For Netflix, Yeoh is set to star in fantasy film The School for Good and Evil, as well as prequel miniseries The Witcher: Blood Origin.
Yeoh's nephew in the story, teenage boy Jin Wang, will be played by Ben Wang. The actor made his acting debut in the MacGyver reboot series, and ever since then has guest starred in The Last O.G., Search Party, and in the Hulu film Sex APPeal. Wang (the character) is a child of Taiwanese immigrants who is stuggling to figure out his identity in America, and the boy’s witty mother will be played by Yeo Yann Yann (The 9th Precinct, Ilo Ilo), with his hard-working father embodied by Chin Han (Mortal Kombat).
Also in the cast is Hong Kong Film Awards nominee Daniel Wu, who is set to play another all-powerful god who enters our world in search of his son: the Monkey King, a Taoist deity who mastered all heavenly disciplines but was buried under a mountain for several hundred years. Rounding out the cast are Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) as Freddy Wong, a popular character from a sitcom inside the series’ universe; Jim Liu (The Farewell) as Wei-Chen, a friend of Jin’s with secret identity of his own; and Sydney Taylor (Just Add Magic: Mystery City) as Amelia, Jin’s classmate and crush.
American Born Chinese is based on the 2006 acclaimed graphic novel by author Gene Luen Yang. It is adapted for television by Emmy winner Kelvin Yu (Bob’s Burgers), who also serves as showrunner. Aside from directing, Cretton is also attached to executive produce the series along with Yu.
Production on American Born Chinese starts later this month. A release date has not been announced.