Kung Fu Reboot Cast Olivia Liang in Lead Role

The Kung Fu TV reboot coming to The CW has find its lead in Olivia Liang, Deadline reports. Liang is an interesting choice in that she has a variety of drama / Young Adult titles on her resume (Grey’s Anatomy, Dating After College, Legacies), but not the kind of action experience that you would expect for this kind of show. Not that martial arts action is a requisite for this kind of role: plenty of actresses (Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron) have taken on major martial action action roles with little to no prior experience, and still knocked it out of the park (respectively).

If you didn’t already know, The CW’s Kung Fu reboot’s storyline has already been revealed in the show’s synopsis:

“Written by Christina M. Kim, inspired by the original series created by Ed Spielman, in the new Kung Fu, a quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman, Nicky Chen (Liang), to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice — all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.“

In addition to Olivia Liang being cast in the lead role, Kung Fu has also tapped Tzi Ma and Kheng Hua Tan to play the parents of Liang’s character, Nicky Chen – as well as Jon Prasida, Shannon Dang, and Eddie Liu. Liang has landed this critical lead role just after she snagged a recurring role in The CW’s Vampire Diaries spinoff Legacies.

The original Kung Fu TV series starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, the white/Chinese orphan who is taken in and trained at a Shaolin Temple. Caine eventually became a Shaolin priest and martial arts master. After his master was murdered by the Emperor’s nephew, Caine avenged his master and earned a price on his head as a result. Caine then flees to America to reunite with his American family, and finds his Shaolin values constantly force him to take a noble stand and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Obviously, that premise has a lot of room to fit a modern frame – especially on the female front. Of course, it could also easily slip into a cheesy CW show with faux-femme overtones. We’ll see.