Following the news that Max is developing a Crazy Rich Asians TV series, Jon M. Chu — who helmed the 2018 blockbuster before his two Wicked films — gave a taste of what’s to come on the small screen.
“We needed more real estate, that was the reality,” Chu told The Hollywood Reporter on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday. “We developed the movie over and over and over again and we’re still working on a version of something that I won’t talk about now, but the TV landscape allowed us to use all the characters.”
It was announced last week that Chu and Adele Lim, the film’s co-writer, were both on board the series, with the latter as showrunner. Lim previously departed the planned sequel film in 2019, revealing to THR at the time that she was being offered a fraction of salary Warner Bros. was offering co-writer Peter Chiarelli, a white man.
Sequel plans for the film — which starred Michelle Yeoh, Constance Wu and Henry Golding — have been up in the air for years as a result, and Chu still isn’t entirely taking a second film off the table.
“I don’t know if it’s in lieu of a sequel but it felt clear that every character we wanted to explore needed more room and just a movie wasn’t doing it for us,” he added on the carpet. “We got to bring Adele back into the fold and so we’re starting this now, it’s going to be fun.”
The series will be based on Kevin Kwan’s novels — Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems — following native New Yorker Rachel Chu (played by Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend Nick (Golding) to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore, learning upon arrival that his family is extremely wealthy. Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, Jimmy O. Yang and Ronny Chieng also appeared in the original film.
Ash Crossan contributed to this report.
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