Ever since its original publication in 2006, the acclaimed graphic novel "American Born Chinese" by author Gene Luen Yang has always felt ripe for a live-action adaptation. Divided up into three initially unconnected stories, the story manages to balance mythical and possibly supernatural tales involving Chinese deities with the otherwise grounded and all-too-relatable struggles of two Chinese students — one American-born, the other recently emigrated from China — attempting to assimilate and fit in among the daunting environment of high school. How these disparate threads manage to intersect in the end is well worth reading to find out.
The rights to a series-length adaptation ultimately found its way to Disney, with "Short Term 12" and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton attached to direct several episodes and starring practically the entire core cast of "Everything Everywhere All At Once". From showrunner Kelvin Yu ("Bob's Burgers"), the first two episodes of "American Born Chinese" premiered at this year's South by Southwest film festival, where /Film's Rafael Motamayor reviewed the series and described it as "not just a good coming-of-age story, but a rather good Wuxia-inspired epic tale of gods and mortals." Disney must be feeling quite confident about what they have on their hands, as the newest trailer has dropped over a month before the series arrives on Disney+ streaming.
Check it out below!
Check Out The American Born Chinese Trailer
For quite some time, the most headline-grabbing novelty of "American Born Chinese" has come from the coincidental casting similarities between this and, well, pretty much the main quartet of characters from the Best Picture-winning "Everything Everywhere All At Once." The series stars Ben Wang as Chinese-American teen Jin Wang and Jim Liu as foreign exchange student Wei-Chen, who sure looks like he's much more important in the grand scheme of things than he initially lets on. But the ensemble cast surrounding them includes the likes of Oscar-winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, along with Stephanie Hsu, and James Hong in various roles. The show will also star Yeo Yann Yann, Chin Han, martial arts expert Jimmy Liu, Sydney Taylor, Ronny Chieng, Jimmy O. Yang, Leonard Wu, and Poppy Liu.
Based on the footage, viewers are in for an epic and hard-hitting story about cultural identity, coming of age in America as a person of color, and other weighty themes … which just so happens to include gods, sweeping battle sequences, and a very familiar-looking twist on multiverse misadventures. "American Born Chinese," described as a "genre-hopping action-comedy series," will release all eight episodes at once on Disney+ on May 24, 2023.
Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang, "American Born Chinese" chronicles the trials and tribulations of a regular American teenager whose life is forever changed when he befriends the son of a mythological god. This is the story of a young man's battle for his own identity, told through family, comedy, and action-packed Kung-Fu.
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