After years of starts and stops and development, we may finally get a return to the world of “Crazy Rich Asians.”
A new series is in development from Warner Bros. Television for Max that will be based on Kevin Kwan’s book series and will bring back the 2018 film’s writer Adele Lim to serve as the series showrunner, as well as director Jon M. Chu to executive produce.
The series will be a one-hour drama and is only in development at this stage, so it’s unclear whether cast from the original film, which starred Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, and Gemma Chan, will return.
Lim, who was a co-writer on “Crazy Rich Asians,” is now an EP, writer, and showrunner via her production company 100 Tigers, while Chu is an EP via Electric Somewhere. Kwan, the author of the three books in the “Asians” series, will also executive produce. Other EPs include Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson via their Color Force banner, which was behind development for the original film, and Naia Cucukov via Lim’s 100 Tigers. SK Global Entertainment will also produce, with Chloe Dan overseeing the project for the company.
Grossing $239 million worldwide for Warner Bros. in 2018, Chu and Lim have been trying to bring a sequel to the screen for some time, specifically Kwan’s other books “China Rich Girlfriend” and “Rich People Problems.”
Work was underway as recently as 2022 on the sequel, with a new writer Amy Wang being tapped to adapt the series after Lim left the project in 2019 over a pay disparity dispute along with co-writer Peter Chiarelli. Warner Bros. was also in development on a “Crazy Rich Asians” spinoff movie back in 2022 that would have followed the romance of Gemma Chan and Harry Shum Jr.’s characters.
Chu, currently riding high with “Wicked” and finishing work on “Wicked: For Good” arriving later this year, previously addressed controversy around the film that he only cast South Asian actors in stereotypical roles as servants or lesser background characters, saying he learned a lesson and needed to “pay more attention to that stuff” for future installations of the series.
Lim was most recently a writer and producer on the Lionsgate comedy “Joy Ride” from 2023.
Lim is represented by Paradigm and Ginsburg, Daniels, Kallis. Chu is represented Artists First; UTA; Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher (GGSSC); and ID PR. Kwan is represented by CAA and attorney Peter Nichols at Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark, Inc. Cucukov is repped by Paradigm and Sean Marks.
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