Warner Bros. Discovery continues to botch one of its most promising franchises. While there’s obviously a hectic shuffle around the DC Comics properties the company owns, the film division seemingly also hasn’t nailed down its sequel to Crazy Rich Asians, the 2018 rom-com based on Kevin Kwan’s book of the same name. Crazy Rich Asians 2, which could also be called China Rich Girlfriend after Kwan’s sequel, seems to still be in the writing phase, according to Michelle Yeoh. This is exactly where the movie sat in March of this year when writer Amy Wang came aboard the project.
Fans of Crazy Rich Asians might have been excited when they saw E! News’ headline “Michelle Yeoh Gives an Update On the Crazy Rich Asians Sequel.” Unfortunately, Yeoh’s update wasn’t much of an update. While speaking with the outlet in promotion of The Witcher: Blood Origin, Yeoh addressed Crazy Rich Asians 2’s status, saying, “We are still waiting on it. We know there’s a writer on it, so we’ll see. Fingers crossed.”
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While Yeoh could be playing coy, her wording just doesn’t come like that to me. While everyone wants a good sequel instead of a rushed one, there are a lot of red flags working against Crazy Rich Asians 2 that make us worried about the movie either never coming out or, if it does release eventually, losing the magic of the first film on its way to production.
WB execs seemingly botched the initial movement on a China Rich Girlfriend adaptation when they tried to pay screenwriter Adele Lim a much lower rate for working on future films in the franchise compared to the rate of her co-writer Peter Chiarelli. It rightfully blew up into a fiasco for WB, which surely threw production into limbo. The coronavirus pandemic then began in 2020, throwing the entire entertainment industry into disarray. No news on the sequel’s status surfaced until Wang officially replaced Lim and Chiarelli in March.
Throughout 2022, Discovery’s acquisition of WB has left numerous projects scrapped and the future of movies of all budgets uncertain. Elsewhere, the film’s cast has gotten much busier. Michelle Yeoh is riding high off the acclaimed Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and the upcoming Witcher spinoff for Netflix. Henry Golding’s name seems to always be brought up for high-profile casting projects, including James Bond. Plus, he’s joined the Old Guard franchise for Netflix, and, hypothetically, he could be involved in the upcoming sequel to A Simple Favor.
Awkwafina has joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Jumanji franchise and is very in demand for Hollywood projects. She also has a Comedy Central show, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. Ken Jeong is busier than ever with The Masked Singer and other TV shows, in addition to the upcoming Community movie. Jimmy O. Yang and Ronny Chieng have both had successful Netflix projects, among other high-profile gigs.
On the subject of Gemma Chan, that’s a whole new cause for concern. Like her co-stars, her fame continues to rise, with her taking on a second role in the MCU as Sersi in Eternals. However, the biggest concern around her involvement in Crazy Rich Asians 2 is that the WB film division intends to spin off her character, Astrid Leong-Teo, into a separate movie with Harry Shum Jr.’s Charlie Wu. Even if Chan does return for a China Rich Girlfriend adaptation, fans would presumably be getting less Astrid-related plot in it.
It’s just wild that Warner Bros. has been so slow to get this rom-com franchise rolling. Netflix has been able to launch full-on franchises out of The Kissing Booth, To All the Boys, A Christmas Prince, The Princess Switch and A California Christmas. And plenty of of great one-off titles in the genre have come out, such as Palm Springs, The Map of Tiny Perfect Little Things, Bros, Marry Me, and more. While Crazy Rich Asians fans obviously want the bar to be set higher than the aforementioned Netflix fare, give us something, WB!
