Though the film is still to open here in the UK (moved up from November to a 14 September date), Crazy Rich Asians has already launched successfully in the States. Which means that Warner Bros. is kicking off early development on the sequel, with director Jon M. Chu aiming to return.
While the studio has not officially given the nod to a new film, and will be looking to see how the first performs going forward in the US and overseas, there's plenty of reason to believe that a sequel will see the light of day. Not least because Warners owns the rights to author Kevin Kwan's entire trilogy, with the two follow-up books China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, arriving in 2015 and 2017. Screenwriters Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli are also expected to work on the new scripts.
The producers have previously told The Hollywood Reporter that they had plans for follow-ups to the first film, which finds Chinese-American professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) suffering culture shock when she discovers her boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding) is the scion of a mega-rich Singaporean family. The sequel – and here, we'll offer a spoiler alert for those who have yet to see the film – is hinted at during a mid-credits scene in which Nick's Cousin Astrid (Gemma Chan), who splits from her husband (Pierre Png) after he has an affair, exchanging meaningful glances with her first love Charlie Wu (Harry Shum Jr.)
If Chu is to direct the film, it'll likely have to wait until he finishes work on his next planned gig, an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical In The Heights, which has a release scheduled for 2020.
Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire on Great Magazines and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.