After a worldwide search Disney’s live action Mulan production has finally found their star. And if you thought that the title role would go to a white actress, have no fear! Your new Mulan is Chinese actress Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that a “team of casting directors visited five continents and saw nearly 1,000 candidates for the role” looking for a star who could speak English and had martial arts skills. Yifei, who is known in China as the “Fairy Sister” for her image, has acted in mostly Chinese productions but appeared in American-Chinese movies like 2014’s Outcast with Nicholas Cage and The Forbidden Kingdom in 2008.
The new Mulan is coming out sometime in 2019 and will be directed by The Zookeepers Wife’s Niki Caro. She has said before that it will be “a big, girly martial arts epic…it will be extremely muscular and thrilling and entertaining and moving.” In March Caro also said that the movie would not include musical numbers, though that may change in the future.
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