In case you missed it, Disney announced today that they've cast Chinese actor Liu Yifei in the titular role of their live-action remake of the 1998 animated feature Mulan.
Fans are already voicing their excitement about the news.
LOOK AT OUR MULAN YALL 👏🏽👏🏽
And, more specifically, their excitement that a Chinese actor has been cast in the role.
We have our Chinese Mulan! 🎉🌸🗡 Liu Yi Fei has just been casted as Mulan in #Disney’s live-action adaptation of… https://t.co/mgbKfUjlTN
Disney's Mulan is based on the Chinese legend, Hua Mulan, and fans are thrilled that Disney has chosen to maintain close ties to the story and to the character's cultural roots.
Disney actually hired a Chinese actress to play Mulan #Mulan
when you see #disney actually cast a Chinese actress to play in the live action #mulan movie!
It's a little heartbreaking how happy I am that Disney cast a Chinese woman to play a Chinese woman. #Mulan
Mood; Mulan has been cast, and the actress is Chinese, and not white *cue happy tears*
The Lion King and Mulan WILL be disneys top live action remakes. We will make that happen. We have POC accurately b… https://t.co/UFb4MPyYGM
And they're poking fun at past movies that have been accused of whitewashing Asian roles.
scarjo after she finds out a chinese actress was cast as mulan
🗣 an actual chinese actress cast as mulan 🗣 emma stone and scarlett johansson are shaking in their birkenstocks
Other fans are taking the announcement as an opportunity to highlight the larger conversation surrounding representation in Hollywood.
We're all praising Disney for not whitewashing Mulan like that's how bad it's gotten lmfao we're praising them for… https://t.co/lRagkkqXyb
Chinese actress Liu Yifei is cast as Disney's Mulan! 👏🏼 Amazing that they casted someone who best represents the ch… https://t.co/eGkbwOz2dQ
Yifei's casting follows another milestone for Disney and representing Asian stories and characters on the screen: Kelly Marie Tran, an American-Vietnamese actor in The Last Jedi, will become the first Asian-American woman to play a major character in the Star Wars universe when the film is released on Dec. 15.
In a press release announcing Yifei's casting, Disney stated that "additional announcements regarding Mulan will be made in the coming weeks." So stay tuned for (hopefully) more great news!
