SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – AUGUST 12, 2018: A poster displayed outside a movie theater advertises a coming attraction, the film ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
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Eight years after the first film demolished long held concerns about the profitability of a predominantly Asian cast, Crazy Rich Asians is official coming back — this time as a series.
The show will be eight episodes long, all one hour each, premiering on HBO Max.
Already confirmed to return are leads Constance Wu as Rachel Chu and Henry Golding as Nicholas Young. Accompanying them are Ronny Chieng (also a series regular) and Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh (in a recurring role).
More cast announcements to follow.
The series will be executive produced by Adele Lim, who co-wrote the first movie and will also be a showrunner this time round.
Jon M. Chu, who famously directed the original, will still be around as an executive producer, along with Crazy Rich Asians original author Kevin Kwan.
Why Crazy Rich Asians Is A Series And Not A Sequel
The route to this announcement has been long and complicated.
It made sense to go into development for a sequel immediately after the massive success of the first film. Crazy Rich Asians grossed $238.5 million worldwide against a $30 million production budget, virtually unprecedented for a Hollywood film starring a predominantly Asian cast.
It was the year’s biggest comedy (not to mention the ultimate plane movie), and at the time, the biggest romantic comedy since 2009’s The Proposal.
The majority of the film’s cast went on to bigger projects, from Henry Golding to Nico Santos and Gemma Chan.
That being said, the proposed film sequel hit multiple repeated roadblocks. These included current showrunner Lim leaving the project after a dispute over pay parity with Warner Bros.
According to reporter Rebecca Sun, Lim was reportedly offered $110,000 as opposed to veteran co-screenwriter Peter Chiarelli’s range of $800,000-$1,000,000.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 26: Director Adele Lim attends the Los Angeles premiere of Lionsgate’s “Joy Ride” at Westwood Regency Village Theater on June 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic)
FilmMagic
Then after that, Jon M. Chu had to stall because of his work directed the Wicked films.
In a public statement, Lim said: “It’s a Crazy Rich family reunion! This series is the sequel we’ve been waiting for, but instead of just one movie, we get eight episodes to delve into the characters and worlds of Kevin Kwan’s brilliant books.”
What The Crazy Rich Asians Series Will Cover
SANTA MONICA, CA – JANUARY 13: The cast and crew of Crazy Rich Asians, winners of Best Comedy Movie, attend the 24th annual Critics’ Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on January 13, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/WireImage)
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The show picks up directly after the events of the 2018 film and draws on Kwan’s second and third novels, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems.
China Rich Girlfriend follows Rachel and Nick right before their swanky Hong Kong wedding, where Rachel comes face to face with her biological father. Her father, who is a wealthy politician, turns the series in the direction of the infinite nuances of Asian hierarchies, from Singaporean Chinese to mainland Chinese and more.
The Crazy Rich Asians series is also the first major order for HBO since the completion of the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, so all eyes will definitely be on this crazier, richer sequel.
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