‘The Joy Luck Club’ Might Come Back for a Sequel or TV Series

“The Joy Luck Club” has the distinction of being the last major Hollywood feature film with a majority Asian cast telling a contemporary Asian-American story before “Crazy Rich Asians” arrived 25 years later.

With the latter’s success at the box office, it appears the former is coming full circle with a possible sequel, complete with the same cast members reprising their roles.

Producer Ronald Bass revealed such plans during the 25th anniversary screening of “The Joy Luck Club” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills last Wednesday night. The event was highlighted by a reunion of the film‘s main cast.

“Both the series or sequel, if they happen, will be the same cast 25 years later,” Bass told Entertainment Tonight.

“In other words, the mothers are now grandmothers. The daughters are now mothers and they each have a millennial daughter of their own. So, now it would be a three generation… what’s that like in mother-daughter relations? Today’s world versus first, second generations and immigrants.”

He noted that while a “pilot script” for a TV drama is also already available, a new film may be more likely to get made.

“For someone to buy your script for a feature, anybody can make one if you make it at the right price,” Bass added. “Anybody can release them. So, I would always say a feature is more likely to go than a series.”

The original movie is about four older women — all Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco — who meet regularly to play mahjong, eat, and tell stories.

Based on Amy Tan’s bestselling novel of the same name, “The Joy Luck Club” was moderately successful at the box office when it was released in 1993, generating nearly $33 million in the United States at a $10.5 million budget.

While it received a positive critical reaction, the movie was also criticized for its negative representation of Asian American male characters.

Feature Image via Instagram / lisalingstagram (Left), mingna_wen (Right)

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