See The Actress Who Replaced Jackie Chan In The Next Big Action Movie
Jackie Chan was replaced by a certain legendary Hong Kong actress in this upcoming major martial arts film. Find out who.
This article is more than 2 years old
If you’ve seen any of the trailers, teasers, or colorful posters centered around the upcoming, multiverse bending film, Everything Everywhere All at Once, you’re bound to have caught a glimpse of the film’s star, Michelle Yeoh kicking absolute butt and taking names. But, it turns out that originally, the directorial team, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan didn’t have the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star in mind for the film’s leading role. Instead, they were thinking of going the more traditional route and casting a male lead, specifically Jackie Chan. Thankfully for those of us who are ready to see women step into more action oriented roles, the filmmaking duo decided to go for Yeoh instead in a role that will see her throwing punches in a fun, bizarre film starring a stellar lineup including Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Everything Everywhere All at Once focuses on Yeoh’s Evelyn, a Chinese immigrant who is just trying to make it to the other end of tax season with her sanity intact. Somewhere along the way, the protagonist gets carried off on a mesmerizing adventure where she is tasked with saving the world. She’ll need to do some soul searching in order to carry out this big assignment which is where the multiverse traversing comes in. In the story, audiences will see countless versions of Evelyn’s life play out while she gathers intel from each of her different selves in a push to help her along on her journey. While Jackie Chan would have been a fun addition to the film, it would have truly changed everything surrounding the story. During a sit down with The Hollywood Reporter, Scheinert and Kwan, otherwise known as the Daniels, said their film completely pulled itself together when they replaced the male lead for a female.
Out of the gate, the directorial team knew they wanted Yeoh to be in the adventure flick. Initially, they imagined her in the role as Jackie Chan’s wife, but were having some issues with other casting arrangements and the overall storyline. That’s when a lightbulb went off for the duo who decided to flip the script on its head. Putting Yeoh in Chan’s place not only opened the film up for a more interesting plotline, it also solved some of the issues the team was having as far as casting went. The Daniels said their decision immediately made sense and would make the husband and wife duo “more relatable” to audiences. After their idea fell into place, it seemed like a no-brainer and a real “duh” moment for the two who wondered why they didn’t think of the change sooner.
While we love seeing Jackie Chan in everything that he does, we can’t say we’re disappointed with a female lead in a martial arts based action flick, especially Michelle Yeoh. Plus, it’s not like Chan will never get his time in the sun again as he’s still one of Hollywood’s most sought after actors. As for Everything Everywhere All at Once, we are excited to see what the Daniels have come up with for their most recent project when it drops in theaters on April 8.
