Just a few days after Crazy Rich Asians dazzled the box office and audiences alike, fans rejoiced at the swift decision from Warner Bros. to begin development on a sequel. With more material for the characters introduced in Crazy Rich Asians readily available in author Kevin Kwan's bestselling follow-up, China Rich Girlfriend, fans were eager for the announcement. Although director Jon M. Chu and the original production team arealready attached, as the original report detailed, the sequel has yet to officially get the green light from the studio. Chu recently was asked about the sequel, to which he responded that China Rich Girlfriend is still not official yet. Here's what he said:
I'm down to do the next two movies, we've been talking a lot about it, but we still have to close my deal on it. We would love to have the cast back. We have a such a deep bench of cast and we only used them a little bit. We would love to show them off a lot more.
With Crazy Rich Asians still holding its head high in theaters, it's no surprise China Rich Girlfriend is in its early stages of development. The sequel wasn't going to move forward without proof from moviegoers that Crazy Rich Asians could be a moneymaker on its own. The movie was a game-changer for the romantic comedy genre that hadn't seen such a high-performing movie of its kind since 2009's The Proposal, and it featured the first all-Asian cast in 25 years. Director Jon M. Chu is soon leaping to Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights movie next, as it is scheduled for a 2020 release date. So even if we are getting a sequel, it might be quite some time until then.
As Jon M. Chu explained in the interview with Variety, he's more than willing to see the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy out by adapting each of Kevin Kwan's novels to the big screen. Considering the success of the film, although the cast isn't officially signed on, we have no doubt many would return. Awkwafina, who has seen a breakout summer with Ocean's 8 and as Peik Lin in Crazy Rich Asians previously expressed her interest in a sequel. The film featured a huge ensemble cast, each with many storylines from the book left to explore on the big screen.
In Crazy Rich Asians, many scenes featuring the supporting characters had to be cut, such as for Astrid's character. While in the final version, actor Harry Shum Jr. showed up briefly at the end as Charlie Wu from the books, his character was originally given a much bigger role in the film. With China Rich Girlfriend potentially in the works, there are reported plans to focus on their relationship more heavily. China Rich Girlfriend would also be about Rachel and Nick's trip to China to learn more about her father, including deeper storylines for Kitty Pong and Bernard Tai.
Until we know more, Crazy Rich Asians is still in theaters. You can also browse through our 2018 release schedule to learn what the year's remaining movies are.
