Crazy Rich Asians Sequels: Everything You Need To Know

After its US release in late August and consequent UK release in early September, Crazy Rich Asians became the most popular rom-com in nearly a decade, prompting not one but two sequels.

Based on Kevin Kwan's best-selling book of the same name, the film has been lauded for featuring a predominantly Asian cast - a rarity in Hollywood - and for its heartwarming escapism. It tells a fish-out-of-water story of a Chinese-American woman who goes to Singapore for her boyfriend's best friend's wedding to discover her beau is of princely wealth with a formidable family. Cue comic cultural clashes aplenty.

So what can we expect from the sequels? This is what we know:

The cast

So far, the two sequels will feature the main players from the original Crazy Rich Asians line-up. Jon Chu will direct once again, while producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson of Colour Force and John Penotti of Ivanhoe are also set to return. The film's original screenwriters, Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, are currently working on the script, according to Deadline. Henry Golding, who played the male lead, said earlier this year that he'd love to reprise his role of Nicholas Young. "I hope there’s something in the future," he told in The Hollywood Reporter in August. "It would be so much fun to get everybody back together, back to sweaty old Singapore." No casting announcements have been revealed.

The plot

Crazy Rich Asians is, in fact, a trilogy so there's a lot of material to mine for the sequels. The next book China Rich Girlfriend looks at what happens when Rachel Chu tries to track down her birth father (Chu was informed in the first film that her father was not dead, as she'd thought, but alive and living in China). The final book, Rich People Problems, is about the increasing ill-health of Nicholas Young's matriarch grandmother, who is on her death bed - and how this brings out the worst in the family who are each desperate to inherit her estate.

However, it's not known whether or not, the film sequels will follow a similar template. Director Jon Chu said that the next movie will look at the relationship between Astrid (Gemma Chan) and Charlie (Harry Shum Jr), who were seen dancing with one another at the end of the film. "The idea is to tell the story [of Astrid and Charlie] in the next movie,” Chu explained to THR. "I made a promise to Harry, so I’m going to do it."

Release date

Filming won't start until 2020, due to director Chu's prior work commitments. However, when filming does eventually start, they'll be shot back-to-back, meaning audiences won't have to wait long after the second movie for the final and third sequel to be released.