Crazy Rich Asians 2 Finally Lands New Sequel Writer
Warner Bros.' Crazy Rich Asians sequel might be one step closer to becoming a reality. On Monday, it was announced that Amy Wang (Brothers Sun, From Scratch) has been tapped to write the upcoming second film, which has been in development limbo for over two years. Wang is taking over the job from original co-writers Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, the latter of whom parted ways with the project in 2019 due to a dispute over pay disparity. Wang is best known for her Cannes-winning short film Unnatural, as well as work on Netflix's Brothers Sun and From Scratch and directing episodes of Blindspotting and The Birch.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chiarelli worked with director Jon M. Chu to develop a treatment and a first draft for the sequel, but further progress was stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the sequel does not currently have a title, it is expected to be inspired by the second book in Kevin Kwan's best-selling series, China Rich Girlfriend. The studio originally planned to have China Rich Girlfriend and the third film, Rich People Problems, film back to back in 2020.
"It has been completely insane," Kwan said of the series' success in a 2020 interview with The Guardian. "I felt, in the words of my friend the artist Judy Chicago, that my life exploded and I'm still trying to put it back together. I jumped on the rollercoaster, it's been really chaotic for the last seven years."
Crazy Rich Asians centered around Chinese-American professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), whose world is turned upside down when she discovers that her boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding), is from one of the richest families in Singapore. The film also starred Gemma Chan, Lisa Liu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, Michelle Yeoh, Sonoya Mizuno, Ronny Chieng, and Jimmy O. Yang. The film was a surprise box office success, grossing over $238 million in the summer of 2018 and becoming the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the 2010s.
"I always bug [director Jon M. Chu] about it and he tells him the same thing every time: They're trying to figure out the writing," Golding explained in an interview with E! Online earlier this year. "I know they're working on it, but hopefully sooner than later."
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h/t: Deadline