The next live-action remake coming from Disney is Mulan, a big budget reimagining of the House of Mouse’s beloved 1998 animated movie. Unlike previous reboots such as Aladdin and The Lion King though, Mulan won’t simply follow the story of the original and is expected to hew closer to the classical Chinese myths about the warrior woman instead. The movie will offer a fresher experience than most, then, and you can get your best look yet at Niki Caro’s film in this new trailer, which just dropped today.
Liu Yifei stars as Hua Mulan, the brave young woman who takes off to war in place of her ailing father. And that’s practically all that’s recognizable from the animated version, as 2020’s Mulan is populated with a totally different supporting cast and plot details. Donnie Yen features as Commander Tung, Mulan’s mentor, while Yoson An is Cheng Hongou, the heroine’s new love interest, replacing Li Shang. Jet Li will also appear as the Emperor of China.
As for the villains, Jason Scott Lee is Bori Khan, a Hun warrior inspired by the cartoon’s Shan Yu. Meanwhile, the main antagonist is an entirely unique character to this movie – Xian Lang (Gong Li), a powerful witch. And, of course, there’s no corresponding character for Mushu, Eddie Murphy’s talking dragon. Understandably, fans have already blown their tops about this change. Likewise, don’t expect it to be a musical, either, so there’ll be no singing along to “I’ll Make a Man Out Of You” this time.
Mulan has also courted controversy beyond just the alterations to the story, though, as Yifei was accused of supporting police brutality in Hong Kong a few months ago, which led to the #BoycottMulan campaign going viral. It remains to be seen whether this will have any effect on its release, but with a reported budget of almost $300 million, Mulan will have to rake in a lot of cash to turn a profit. Then again, this is a Disney remake we’re talking about, so it seems pretty likely that it’ll bring honor to the studio.