Don’t Bother Making The Crazy Rich Asians TV Show Without Gemma Chan

Everyone’s favorite plane movie is about to become everyone’s favorite plane TV show. Instead of a long-awaited second movie, HBO has ordered a Crazy Rich Asians sequel series, with much of the original cast set to return. Adele Lim, who co-wrote the 2018 film, will serve as showrunner, and director Jon M. Chu will serve as an executive producer.

There’s one glaring problem, though, and fans spotted it fast: Where is Gemma Chan?

Henry Golding and Constance Wu will reunite as the central couple, Nick and Rachel; Ronny Chieng returns as Nick’s cousin Eddie; and Michelle Yeoh returns as Nick’s lovably wicked mother, Eleanor. Chan wasn’t part of the announcement, even though her Astrid, Nick’s cousin, has one of the film’s most dramatic and pivotal arcs.

The movie practically sets Chan up to lead a sequel. Its mid-credits scene introduces Astrid’s new love interest, Charlie Wu, played by Harry Shum Jr. Shum, who is currently competing on Dancing With the Stars, was also left out of the announcement. That could simply mean the show will reveal the two castings later.

But frankly, if Chan and Shum aren’t part of the show, why bother?

Plot details are scarce beyond the series picking up where the 2018 film left off, so Nick and Rachel’s wedding should be a major factor. The whole point of turning the sequel into a series, though, was having the “real estate” to “use all the characters” from Kevin Kwan’s best-selling books, Chu told The Hollywood Reporter in 2025.

“It’s a CRAZY RICH family reunion!” Lim said in a statement to Deadline. “This series is the sequel we’ve been waiting for, but instead of just one movie, we get eight episodes to delve into the characters and worlds of Kevin Kwan’s brilliant books.”

It would be a shame to explore that world and skip Astrid, who navigates infidelity and divorce with grace and poise while still out-dressing everyone else on screen. Chan’s performance is warm yet formidable, and Astrid deserves the same rom-com happy ending Rachel gets.

A premiere date for the Crazy Rich Asians series hasn’t been set yet, but production is scheduled to begin in 2027. Hopefully Chan and Shum’s castings will be confirmed well before then.