American Born Chinese First Look: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu reunite

January 13, 2023

Stephanie Hsu also stars in the series based on Gene Luen Yang’s comics.

The cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” truly lives up to its name.

Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, who starred as a first-generation family in Daniels’ award-winning film A24, are reuniting on screen in Disney+’s upcoming series “American Born Chinese.” Based on Gene Luen Yang’s comic book of the same name, “American Born Chinese” was adapted by Kelvin Yu for the streaming platform.

The series follows Jin Wang (Ben Wang), the son of Chinese immigrants, who struggles with assimilation in the United States. Jin escapes to the realm of fantasy to deal with his emotions and encounters spiritual beings such as Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, played by Yeoh.

“I’m a superhero fan at a visceral level,” author Yang said Entertainment Weekly having written comics for both DC and Marvel. “At the heart of the superhero genre is the blending of the fantastic and the mundane. I think it reflects the Asian-American experience in particular, and the experience of immigrant children in general. Many of us feel that we live between two different worlds. As a child, I spoke one language at home and another at school. I have one name at home and another at school. I lived under two different cultural expectations.”

Ironically, the trio featured in the generational trauma multiverse film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” lead the Disney+ series in a similar superhero vein. The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” writer-director Daniels previously told IndieWire that Disney had approached them to helm Marvel’s “Loki” series.

“There were meetings with Marvel about Loki that we didn’t even include,” Daniel Scheinert said at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.

Co-director Kwan added, “We tried to make our own multiverse movie. No, the appointment was set and we went, but by the time we left we said we probably wouldn’t make it. We were trying to shoot our own movie at the same time… they were trying to do a Douglas Adams-style sci-fi (for “Loki”). It was awesome to get those offers and say, “Holy shit, we’re working on this!”

Check out the first look at “American Born Chinese” below.