Disney’s American Born Chinese series celebrates the first day of filming with a blessing ceremony.
Producer Melvin Mar shared a photo of the cast and crew on the first day of filming for the Disney+ adaptation of the graphic novel, American Born Chinese. “Day One,” Mar wrote on Instagram. “Blessing Ceremony for a blessed show.” The photo includes series star Ben Wang, who will portray the lead character Jin Wang, and the rest of his castmates Yeo Yann Yann, Chin Han, Jim Liu, Sydney Taylor, Daniel Wu and Ke Huy Quan.
Also pictured is Michelle Yeoh, showrunner Kelvin Yu, series director Destin Daniel Cretton, who most recently helmed Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as well as Gene Luen Yang, the original author and illustrator of the 2006 American Born Chinese graphic novel. The graphic novel is a coming-of-age story that follows Jin Wang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, as he struggles to fit into an American high school.
Disney+ ordered the series adaptation in October 2021, with Cretton attached to direct and executive produce, though the number of episodes was not revealed. Kelvin and Charles Yu will write and executive produce the series, which has been described as a “genre-hopping action-comedy that explores issues of identity, culture, and family,” and centers on Jin, “an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his immigrant home life.” However, when Jin meets “a new foreign student on the first day of the school year, even more worlds collide as Jin is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.”
“Reading Kelvin’s riveting adaptation of Gene’s incredible novel had me laughing and crying and jumping out of my chair on every page” said Cretton when the series was announced. “I feel deeply connected to the characters in this story and the brilliant team bringing it to life. This show is going to be unlike anything we’ve experienced on TV, and I can’t wait for the world to see what we’re cooking up.”
Yang’s American Born Chinese has won several awards since its publication, including the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2006 and the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album. The novel ties together three seemingly separate stories — that of The Monkey King, Jin Wang and Danny — and has been praised for its exploration of identity, assimilation and racial stereotypes.
Disney+’s adaptation of American Born Chinese has yet to receive a premiere date.
Source: Instagram
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