HBO Greenlights Crazy Rich Asians Series, with Original Cast Returning

The 2018 movie Crazy Rich Asians was a huge box office win for Warner Bros., and now the story is set to continue on HBO with a new series based on the books by author Kevin Kwan. Original film cast members Constance Wu, Henry Golding, and Ronny Chieng will return to star, with Michelle Yeoh reprising her role on a recurring basis. The film’s co-writer Adele Lim will serve as showrunner and executive producer for the series, which is a nice bit of karmic justice: Lim declined to participate in a sequel to the original movie when she was reportedly offered only an eighth of the salary her co-writer was. The film sequel, ultimately, never came to pass. The first season of Crazy Rich Asians will be eight episodes, according to Lim in a statement, who adds that “this series is the sequel we’ve been waiting for.” Something unmentioned by HBO in the press release is the fact that the first film set up a potential future storyline focusing on the characters of Astrid and Charlie, played by Gemma Chan and Harry Shum Jr. Chan and Shum’s deals could still be in motion, or the roles will be recast, or the series will instead focus on the next chapter for the recently engaged Rachel (Wu) and N...