Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton boards Disney Plus series American Born Chinese

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton and actor Michelle Yeoh are teaming up once more for the Disney+ comedy-action series American Born Chinese, based on Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel of the same name. Yeoh will now star in the Daniel Cretton-directed series.

Other members of the cast will include Ben Wang (MacGyver), Yeo Yann Yann (Wet Season), Chin Han (Mortal Kombat), Daniel Wu (Reminiscence), Ke Huy Quan (Finding Ohana), former Taekwondo champion Jim Liu, and Sydney Taylor (Just Add Magic).

Bob’s Burger and Central Park’s Kelvin Yu will serve as the series showrunner.

Yeoh will play Guanyin. According to Deadline, she is an “unassuming auntie who helps her nephew Wei-Chen navigate the challenges of American high school while maintaining her secret identity as the all-powerful Buddhist bodhisattva of Compassion.”

The coming-of-age story focuses on Jin Wang, a run-of-the-mill teenager juggling his social, academic, and home life. However, Jim soon finds himself entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods after meeting a new foreign student on the first day of school.

Wang stars as Jin Wang, the “American teen whose parents immigrated from Taiwan and who is struggling to carve out exactly who he’s supposed to be, socially and culturally.”

Yann Yann will appear as Jin’s mom, Christine Wang, a “strong-willed, opinionated woman with a sly wit, who loves her family deeply.”

Han takes on the role of Jin’s father Simon, “a hard-working, devoted father and husband who is bumping up against the ‘bamboo ceiling’ at his job.”

Wu will play Sun Wukong The Monkey King, the “legendary, all-powerful god of the Chinese epic Journey to the West, who enters our world in search of his son.”

Quan joins the cast as Freddy Wong, a “fictional character from a popular mid-1990s sitcom.”

Liu will play Jin’s confident friend Wei-Chen, a “teen who has just arrived in the United States, whose sweet demeanor belies the deeper mystery of his true identity.”

And Taylor will appear as Amelia, a “friendly ‘all-American’ girl who is Jin’s classmate and crush.”