One of Disney's more successful formulas in recent years has been delivering audiences live-action adaptations of some of their most popular animated classics. Both 2016's The Jungle Book and 2017's Beauty and the Beast went on to become some of the highest-grossing films of the year, in addition to winning over a majority of critics. The studio will be offering audiences a live-action adaptation of Mulan, though one tweak to the film's narrative that has resulted in a major character potentially being cut has fans furious.
In the story, a young girl is fearful that her father will be drafted into the Chinese military, aiming to take his place instead. However, due to the nation's patriarchal rule, being a woman precludes her from enlisting, with the resourceful girl then pretending to be a man and proving herself to be a fierce warrior.
A recent casting announcement, which you can see in the tweet below, seeks to cast the character Chen Honghui, who is described in a similar manner to what fans know of the character Li Shang. Honghui is described as Mulan's rival in boot camp, with the realization that she is a woman resulting in his feelings becoming romantic. In the original film, Shang was also her rival, though there is a not-so-subtle subtext that the male Shang is romantically interested in the seemingly male Mulan, having no idea she's a woman.
Not only are fans upset that the familiar character has been removed, but Shang was one of the very few LGBTQ characters anywhere in the Disney roster. In addition to Disney also removing many of the film's original songs from the upcoming adaptation, to say fans are upset about this recent revelation would be an understatement.
The studio has yet to confirm that the character has officially been removed from the adaptation.
See what fans are saying about the Mulan adaptation before the film hits theaters in 2019!
[H/T Twitter, nerdyasians]