The ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ sequel is officially confirmed—but with a twist no one saw coming
Released in 2018, 'Crazy Rich Asians' became a cultural phenomenon that brought forth not only the extravagant lifestyle of the 'Asians' but also a beautiful love story. Made on a budget of $30 million, the movie sent the ticket windows ringing with a $200 million box office collection. Set against the romantic lives of Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) and Nicholas 'Nick' Young (Henry Golding), who belong to two different economic worlds, the movie was highly celebrated for its Asian representation onscreen. While rumor mills have been rife with the buzz of a sequel for years now, nothing had materialized until now; however, the 'Crazy Rich Asians' sequel has a major catch that no one saw coming.
The movie's director, Jon M. Chu, recently confirmed that he is working on the highly anticipated sequel, as per Esquire. "It's a real thing. We have scripts, and we're waiting to be officially ready to go," Chu said. However, instead of a second feature, the project will be a TV series. The forthcoming sequel will likely draw inspiration from the second book in Kevin Kwan's trilogy, 2015's 'China Rich Girlfriend', with plans to eventually adapt 2017's 'Rich People Problems.' Chu and co had originally planned to shoot the two books back-to-back as a film trilogy in 2020, but the project was reworked into a series.
Notably, the production has faced delays, including changes in writers, as screenwriters Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli were replaced by Amy Wang (The Brothers Sun) after pay disputes. However, Deadline reported in February that Lim would return as the official showrunner. "I also have plans to adapt Crazy Rich Asians for Broadway," Chu added.
The 'Wicked' director also reflected on the challenge of adapting the 'Crazy Rich Asians' books for HBO. "It's hard to do the continuation of the books, because our characters changed so much in the first movie. It's so different [from] the books, actually, even though it feels like it’s the same," he said, adding, "So you couldn't go one-to-one. But we can use a lot of inspiration from the book to dig out more story from it."
The original film's star-studded cast included Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, Ronny Chieng, Jimmy O Yang, and Ken Jeong. While no one has officially confirmed a return for the series yet, Chu assured fans, "Our cast will be there." Notably, Chu spent over five years bringing the Broadway musical 'Wicked' to the big screen, and now that both installments are complete, he shared about the scale of the project.
"It is one movie to me. When I was thinking of every arc, we were thinking of it as one giant chunk," Chu told Variety during an upcoming episode of the 'Awards Circuit Podcast'. The comment was made during 'Part One' of Chu's extensive interview about the musical that consumed the past five years of his life. He noted a personal milestone, saying he "began the project as a father of two and wrapped as a father of five." He added that his fifth child was born on the day 'Wicked' premiered, preventing him from attending.