Featurette Released for Michelle Yeoh Upcoming Disney+ Show, ‘American Born Chinese’

Michelle Yeoh

Disney+ Michelle Yeoh in a scene from the upcoming show "American Born Chinese."

Michelle Yeoh has been busy acting in a slew of upcoming projects and accepting awards celebrating her long career. While “Star Trek” fans across the globe wait to see if and when she’ll reprise her “Star Trek: Discovery” role as Philippa Georgiou in the long-gestating “Star Trek: Section 31” series, Disney+ has released an in-production featurette to support one of her latest efforts, “American Born Chinese.” The streamer showed the featurette to attendees of the recent D23 Expo.

According to Deadline, Yeoh co-stars in “American Born Chinese” as Guanyin, a mythological goddess. The show, the site says, is based on the genre-hopping graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang. Deadline reveals, “‘American Born Chinese’ tells the story of Jin Wang (Ben Wang), an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his home life. When he meets a new student on the first day of the school year, even more worlds collide as Jin is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.”


‘American Born Chinese’ Is Yeoh’s Latest Project 


“It’s a lot of fun, it’s a log of magic, it’s a lot of badass action,” Yeoh says during a brief interview in the 90-second featurette. “It is a magical ride and that’s what Disney+ is all about.”

Joining Yeoh and Wang, Deadline notes, are Yeo Yann Yann as Christine Wang, Chin Han as Simon Wang, Ke Huy Quan as Freddy Wong, Jimmy Liu as Wei-Chen, Sydney Taylor as Amelia, and Daniel Wu as Sun Wukong. Quan recently co-starred with Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the surprise blockbuster that has her in the Oscar conversation. The site adds that Kelvin Yu (“Bob’s Burgers”) serves as executive producer and showrunner, with Destin Daniel Cretton (“Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) directing and serving as executive producer alongside Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan (“Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.”), Erin O’Malley (“Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.”), Asher Goldstein (“Short Term 12”), and Gene Luen Yang.

Entertainment Weekly describes Yeoh’s character, Guanyin, as “Wei-Chen’s unassuming auntie who helps her nephew navigate the challenges of high school — all while maintaining a secret identity as the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion.”

Disney+ will likely debut “American Born Chinese” in 2023.


Yeoh Still Hopes to Add ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ to Her Filmography 



The Internet Movie Database lists several other upcoming projects for Yeoh. They include “The School for Good and Evil,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and several additional “Avatar” sequels, “The Brothers Sun,” and “The Tiger’s Apprentice.” As for the proposed “Section 31” series, that would see Yeoh reprise her role as Philippa Georgiou from “Star Trek: Discovery.” The spin-off has been a topic of conversation dating back to 2018. On January 14, 2019, the official “Star Trek” site, StarTrek.com, ran a story with a headline that read, “Yeoh to Lead New Star Trek Series.” The story noted that the show would “build upon Yeoh’s current ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ role as a member of Starfleet’s Section 31 division, a black-ops shadow organization within the Federation.”

Three-plus years later, “Section 31” is apparently still on Yeoh’s radar despite her jam-packed schedule. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly that ran on April 12, 2022, the actress, who turned 60 on August 6, 2022, said, “‘Section 31’ is that (“Star Trek”) universe but different. It’s like ‘Mission: Impossible’ meets ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ in space.”

In addition to all of her current and potential projects, Yeoh was in Canada on September 11, 2022, for the Toronto International Film Festival, where she accepted the inaugural TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award. While at TIFF, Yeoh reunited with actor Brendan Fraser, her co-star in their hit film, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which was released in 2008. According to People Magazine, Yeoh and Fraser were seated next to one another during the festival’s awards ceremony, as Yeoh received her inaugural TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award and Fraser took home the Tribute Award for his work on the upcoming film, “The Whale.”