Is Crazy Rich Asians 2 Still Happening With The Original Cast And Director Jon M. Chu?
Jon M. Chu's 2018 romantic comedy "Crazy Rich Asians" — based on the novel by Kevin Kwan — was a massive, massive hit. Made for only $30 million, Chu's lightweight puffball grossed $239 million worldwide. It follows the adventures of a young economics professor named Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) who has been enjoying her romantic relationship with the dash-handsome Nick Young (Henry Golding). Nick is called back to his home country of Singapore to attend a wedding, and Rachel is reluctantly invited along. Reluctantly, because Nick has been trying to keep his vast wealth hidden from Rachel. It seems his family is practically royalty in Singapore, inviting new conversations about honesty and their inescapable class divide into their relationship. Also, Nick's family doesn't necessarily approve of a middle-class woman dating one of their own, and some of them accuse Rachel of being a golddigger.
Oh yes, and Nick fully intends to propose to Rachel during their excursion. The family matriarch Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) becomes Rachel's rival. "Crazy Rich Asians" is brisk, light, funny, and energetic. The characters are rich in both senses of the word, and the humor is spot-on. It also cleverly addresses issues of wealth and class and how those things can indeed affect a relationship. It's also definitely worth noting that a movie featuring an all-Asian cast and director was such a massive success.
Naturally, talk of a sequel began right away, and Chu expressed an interest in a "Crazy Rich Asians" follow-up even before the first film's release.
As of this writing, nothing has come of that promise yet. Below is a gathering of information of what is currently known about any "Crazy Rich" sequels.
Everything Jon M. Chu and the studios have said about Crazy Rich Asians 2
In a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, just prior to the premiere of "Crazy Rich Asians," Chu said:
"We have lots of plans if the audience shows up. [...] We have more stories to tell. We have other stories outside of the 'Crazy Rich Asians' world that are ready to be told too from filmmakers and storytellers who haven't had their stories told yet. [...] I will do whatever [the studio executives] ask me to do. [...] This is so important to me. I will push things aside."
Clearly nothing was presented to him right away, as Chu next made the excellent musical "In the Heights" and is currently working on a massive two-film adaptation of the musical "Wicked." The first film is due in 2024 and the second in 2025. He's also currently attached to the Dr. Seuss adaptation "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" A "Crazy Rich Asians" sequel, it seems, won't be on his radar for at least several more years.
Author Kevin Kwan said that he had a lot of faith in the movie and seemingly felt that a sequel was possible. Kwan had already written two follow-up novels to "Crazy Rich Asians" called "China Rich Girlfriend" and "Rich People Problems." Both of those books continue to follow the relationship between Rachel and Nick and the state of their marriage. Back in 2018, Warner Bros. announced (via Deadline) that "China Rich Girlfriend" was in development and that Chu was returning as director.
In December of 2018, producer Nina Jacobson noted that "China Rich Girlfriend" and "Rich People Problems" would be shot back-to-back in 2020.
Needless to say, it didn't happen.
Who will the stars of Crazy Rich Asians 2 be?
"China Rich Girlfriend" was, according to Deadline, going to see the return of Wu and Golding as Rachel and Nick, and the plot would follow the couple to find Rachel's father, a long-absent man living in somewhere in China. There would also be a subplot featuring the return of Astrid (Gemma Chan) and a new relationship with Charlie Wu (Harry Shum Jr.) and a romance for Kitty Pong (Fiona Xie) who leaves her boyfriend Alistair (Remy Hii) for Bernard (Jimmy O. Yang). Further plot details for "China Rich Girlfriend" were laid out in a 2018 report from Screen Rant. It's likely that plot details — all culled directly from Kwan's book — would have to be altered to match changes made to the first "Crazy Rich Asians."
Deadline noted, however, that several members of the cast were booked for at least the next two years. Those years have already elapsed. Things didn't look hopeful in 2019 when screenwriter Adele Lim walked away from the project, as reported in /Film. It seems that her co-screenwriter Peter Chiarelli was offered at least $800,000 to write the script, but Lim was only offered $110,000. Insulted, Lim left. She made her anger clear in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
That sucks in many ways, of course. But it seems that the above injustice wasn't enough to cool ideas for "China Rich Girlfriend." In March of 2022, /Film reported that a script for "China Rich Girlfriend" was still in the works. Amy Wang ("From Scratch") has been approached to write the script, having signed a contract with Warner Bros. Lim and Chiarelli were out.
Why hasn't Crazy Rich Asians 2 happened yet?
One of the delays in making "China Rich Girlfriend" was obviously COVID-19. No one wanted to put a film into production in the middle of a pandemic, and progress was halted for two years. Add that to the studio's stinginess with Lim's paychecks, and the prolonged delays are wholly understandable. Lim, meanwhile, recently made her directorial debut with "Joy Ride," clearly having moved on to bigger and better things.
What's more, Michelle Yeoh is one of the busiest actresses working, and finding a hole in her schedule likely proved difficult. Yeoh also noted in an interview with Movieweb that a screenplay hadn't been produced yet, as the studio was still "trying to find the right story." It seems that "China Rich Girlfriend" is stuck in the very early stages of production.
Constance Wu was most recently in "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile," and Golding will be appearing in "Downtown Owl," "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," and "The Old Guard 2" in the coming years. Gemma Chan was recently in "The Creator," and Awkwafina has at least six films soon to be added to her filmography. It's entirely possible that the stars of "Crazy Rich Asians" merely became more famous since the film's 2018 release and are too busy to come back at present.