Jon M. Chu has admitted a second ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ probably won’t happen.
Sonoya Mizuno as Araminta Lee in Crazy Rich Asians
The 45-year-old director helmed the rom-com - which is an adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s satirical 2013 novel of the same name - in 2018, and although there is much clamour for a follow-up, Chu insists it is unlikely because he is yet to find “a script that’s better and has as much urgency as the first movie”.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chu said: “There are a lot of questions about ‘Crazy Rich Asians 2’ . I always promised the cast, I will not bring them back unless we get a script that’s better and has as much urgency as the first movie. And I think we just haven’t gotten there yet.
“The first movie, even though people think, ‘It’s like the book, so the second book should fit in’, it’s actually not. There’s a lot of shifting, architecturally, and so it’s not a straight translation.
“And then there are characters that you want to see in a movie that are part of the book. We’ve done some versions and it’s never quite hit.
“The bar is high for all of us to come back to do that, so I’m not going to put the audience through that until we’re ready to do it.”
Kwan's bestseller was followed by two sequel books; 'China Rich Girlfriend' in 2015 and 2017's 'Rich People Problems'.
'Crazy Rich Asians’ - which starred Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, Sonoya Mizuno, Michelle Yeoh and Ken Jeong among others - follows Rachel Chu who travels to Singapore with her long-time boyfriend Nick for his best friend’s wedding, where she learns her partner comes from an extremely wealthy family and is considered one of the countries most eligible bachelors.
After this comes to light, Rachel must content with a flurry of jealous women, Nick’s eccentric family and his disapproving mother.
As well as ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, the filmmaker also admitted his future in the ‘G.I. Joe’ franchise was uncertain because he was still working on the second ‘Wicked’ movie, which is due to be released on 21 November, 2025.
Even so, Chu - who helmed ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ in 2013 - admitted he loved the 'G.I. Joe world', and praised his ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ actor Henry Golding for playing the assassin Snake Eyes in the eponymous 2021 flick.
When ComicBook.com asked the director about his potential return to the action franchise, he said: “‘G.I. Joe’?, I’m in ‘Wicked’ world right now.
“I mean I love the ‘G.I. Joe’ world, ‘Snake Eyes’, all those people. Henry Golding, I loved his version of Snake Eyes.
“[But] you never know. You never know, but right now I still got movie two to go to.”
as Araminta Lee in Crazy Rich Asians
Tagged in Michelle Yeoh Henry Golding Awkwafina