Crazy Rich Asians is celebrating a milestone. On Monday, the hit movie based off of the first book in Kevin Kwan’s trilogy debuted, welcoming fans into the opulent world of Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) and Nick Young (Henry Golding).
As soon as the film came out in August 2018, fans were clamoring for a sequel based off of the second book in the series, China Rich Girlfriend, and even crossing their fingers for a third movie based on the final novel, Rich People Problems.
Warner Bros. took note and officially put the sequel into development that month. Four months later, Michelle Yeoh told ET that the sequel was currently being written.
“With the success on their hands, it would be crazy — not just crazy rich, but crazy! — not to do the sequel, right?” Yeoh, who plays Eleanor Sung-Young in the film, said. “So, we’re going to camp outside their doors to make sure that it’s well and truly going to happen.”
Director Jon Chu echoed those thoughts later that month, telling ET that “it’s early days” for the project.
“We’ve got a lot more story to tell,” Chu promised. “We’ve got to show off more of the cast. We’ve got to find new people as well. It would be a whole combo of things.”
The next year, Yeoh once again provided an update to ET, confirming that writers “are working very hard on the two scripts” and promising that “things are happening” behind the scenes.
“They’re writing, I hear,” Golding told ET in April 2019, before cautioning fans, “It’s gonna take a while.”
Then, in March 2022, Deadline reported that Amy Wang was tapped to pen the sequel’s script. That same month, Golding told Access Hollywood about the remaining reason for the delay.
“I think the big challenge is everyone getting back together,” he told the outlet of the highly in-demand cast, which also features Awkwafina, Gemma Chan and Ken Jeong.
Five months later, Harry Shum Jr., who stars as Charlie Wu in the film, told ET of the sequel, “They’re feverishly writing it trying to get it all right.”
“There’s just so many characters, so many things to put in from the book and what’s gonna make it in or not,” he said. “But I’m really excited, the team is excited, the producers are really gearing up to and ready to try and get this thing going.”
Apart from the China Rich Girlfriend movie, Deadline reported in May 2022 that Warner Bros. is in the early stages of developing a potential spinoff film focused on Astrid Young (Chan) and Charlie Wu after their post-credit scene reunion in Crazy Rich Asians. It’s set to be written by Jason Kim.
