American Born Chinese repackages the classic 16th-Century Chinese novel Journey to the West as a contemporary Disney+ series, combining the usual coming-of-age theatrics with Chinese folklore and an all-star line-up of Asian Oscar-winners.
Here’s a quote from our review:
American Born Chinese is an extremely well-made version of this very familiar kind of story, ideal for a platform like Disney+, where the House of Mouse’s bottomless coffers can supplement universal coming-of-age and social acceptance themes with Oscar-winning actors and fancy special effects.
Given the cliffhanger ending, fans are naturally wondering about the potential future of the show, so here’s everything we know.
Will there be a Season 2 of American Born Chinese on Disney+?
Renewed or canceled status: TBC
At the time of writing, Disney+ have not renewed American Born Chinese for a second season.
This isn’t altogether unusual so close to the show’s release. Disney will be keeping a close eye on various important metrics, such as critical and audience reception, number of viewers, and how many of those actually watch the series to completion. At eight half-hour-ish episodes, this isn’t a particularly tall order, but it’s an important metric nonetheless.
Disney are becoming notorious for not just canceling shows — even those, like Willow, that they have explicitly teased sequels for — but actually purging them from the platform entirely. This is certainly a potential fate for American Born Chinese if it doesn’t meet expectations.
However, this show is actually really good, and more importantly, it squarely targets an underrepresented demographic in younger teens. It’s also rich in Chinese folklore and provides a nuanced exploration of the Chinese-American experience, not just contemporizing an old story but providing an even more underserved demo with the chance to really be seen in a prominent big-budget streaming release.
With all these things in mind, coupled with the very open ending which leaves the story largely incomplete, it stands to reason that Disney are angling for a second season of American Born Chinese, and our official prediction is that it’ll get one.
As ever, we’ll update this article as soon as we know more.
