Why Jon M. Chu Says Crazy Rich Asians TV Show Was a Good Alternative as Movie Sequel Remains Up in the Air

Jon M. Chu is ready to expand the Crazy Rich Asians universe.

The director, 45, explained why the new TV adaptation, which is in development at Max, is a great fit to continue the story from the 2018 hit film as the future of a potential sequel remains up in the air.

“We needed more real estate, that was the reality,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We developed the movie over and over and over again and we’re still working on a version of something that I won’t talk about now, but the TV landscape allowed us to use all the characters.”

However, Chu stopped short of ruling out a sequel to Crazy Rich Asians in the future, explaining, “I don’t know if it’s in lieu of a sequel but it felt clear that every character we wanted to explore needed more room and just a movie wasn’t doing it for us.”

Max confirmed on Feb. 28 that Chu would return to executive produce the new series with the film’s co-writer Adele Lim, who will serve as the showrunner. He shared, “We got to bring Adele back into the fold and so we’re starting this now, it’s going to be fun.”

Lim, who co-wrote the movie with Peter Chiarelli, left the sequel after alleged issues of pay disparity in September 2019. At the time, The Hollywood Reporter reported Chiarelli was offered a significantly higher amount than Lim.

The new series — which is based on the trio of novels by Kevin Kwan — will also be executive produced by the author as well as Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson.

Crazy Rich Asians chronicled the love between Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) and Nick Young (Henry Golding). Rachel finds herself thrust into a world of pomp and elitism after accompanying her boyfriend to a friend’s wedding in Singapore, where she learns about his family’s true wealth and his status as a sought-after bachelor.

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In November, Chu told The Hollywood Reporter that he was willing to make a Crazy Rich Asians 2 if the stars properly align.

“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,” he told the publication, adding that at the moment, “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.”

Ultimately, Chu highlighted that “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.”