Earlier this week, Netflix was swarmed by angry Disney fans online for the mistreatment of Ming-Na Wen, the actress known by all as the voice behind Disney’s fiercest princess, Mulan.
Wen and her Mulan co-star, BD Wong, were were both noticeably left out of the official Netflix description for the animated feature. The blurb only included three names, none of which belonged to any of the Asian or Asian American cast members.
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When Wen heard about this huge blunder, she took to Twitter to tell Netflix it was “eff-ed up.”
Yeah, that’s EFF-ed up, @netflix!
I also believe another AsianAm lead voice should also be on the credit. #bdwong How about all the #Mulan fans out there tweet @netflix about this major oversight? Thanks! 💋👍 //t.co/xRzcGL9qqq
— Ming-Na Wen (@MingNa) January 1, 2019
Luckily, Wen’s acknowledgment of this “major oversight” was seen by the streaming service, who were quick to remedy their mistake.
Thank you and @kroqkom so much for pointing this out to us!! It’s now been fixed ❤️ you and @BD_WONG are legends!
— Netflix US (@netflix) January 2, 2019
“Thank you and @kroqkom so much for pointing this out to us!!,” Netflix wrote. “It’s now been fixed,” they added before calling Wen and Wong “legends.”
Mulan follows a young Chinese maiden who pretends to be a man in order to take her father’s place in the army. Considering the film is completely rooted in Chinese culture, it was a pretty big misstep on Netflix’s part to neglect the movie’s Asian cast members, especially considering Wen is the film’s star.
The original listed names included Miguel Ferrer (Shan-Yu), Harvey Fierstein (Yao), and June Forway (Grandmother Fa). It’s also bizarre that they would leave out Eddie Murphy, who voiced Mushu.
Ming-Na Wen, who currently stars in Agents of SHIELD as Melinda May, may have played Mulan 20 years ago, but she’s no where near finished with the iconic story. Last year, she provided her voice to the character once again in Ralph Breaks the Internet, which saw all of the Disney princesses reuniting to kick butt.
While it hasn’t been confirmed, many suspect Wen will be making a cameo in the upcoming live-action Mulan, the latest Disney animation to get the live-action treatment following the success of Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast. In addition to Mulan, we’ll be seeing the Tim Burton-directed Dumbo in March, the Guy Ritchie-directed Aladdin in May, and the Jon Favreau-directed The Lion King in July.
Starring Liu Yifei as Mulan, Donnie Yen as Commander Tung, and Jet Li as the Emperor of China, Mulan opens March 27, 2020.
You can catch Ming-Na Wen in the upcoming sixth season of Agents of SHIELD, which is set to begin airing on ABC in July.
