Here’s an interesting surprise, as it looks like Crazy Rich Asians is getting a spinoff focused on Gemma Chan‘s Astrid Young Teo. The story will focus on her romance with Harry Shum Jr.’s Charlie Wu. The producer behind the hit show Barry, Jason Kim, seemingly sold a pitch to Warner Bros, which kicked off the interest in further developing this storyline. As of now, the project is in early development.
This will not replace the already in-development sequel, which Amy Wang is currently working on. They will both be tied to the second book of Kevin Kwan’s famous trilogy, China Rich Girlfriend. The original story focused on Constance Wu and Henry Golding‘s trip to Shanghai to find her birth father. The spinoff will pick up after Astrid found out her husband, played by Pierre Png, is cheating on her and she reconnected with her first love, Charlie.
It’s definitely an interesting move, but Chan was praised for her performance in the film. What stands out is that this was a pitch by Kim that pushed this project forward rather than something the studio purely decided. So, it’s interesting to see creatives inspired by franchises explore other stories or adapt aspects of books they themselves may have quite enjoyed. The film was a milestone in Asian-American representation and the sequel alongside the spinoff will very likely carry on that torch.
Source: Deadline
