With a Certified Fresh critical approval rating of 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a star-studded cast loaded full of Oscar winners, American Born Chinese should have been one of the most talked-about shows of the year.
It’s certainly one of the most acclaimed, which is the least to be expected from a comic book adaptation rooted in fantasy that was executive produced and partially directed by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ Destin Daniel Cretton, clearly a favorite of the Mouse House seeing as he’s since been hired to tackle Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Meanwhile, the ensemble features Academy Award winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan alongside fellow Everything Everywhere All at Once co-stars Stephanie Hsu and James Hong in what should have been the year’s buzziest reunion. Instead, there was barely any marketing to be seen, with American Born Chinese struggling to make an impact on the public consciousness.
It hasn’t even come close to cracking the most-watched streaming rankings since premiering on May 2024, and Disney may have just admitted it was a flop after revealing a “multi-platform event” that will see select episodes air on ABC, Hulu, Roku, and YouTube, all of which happen to be 20th Television subsidiaries.
Not to sound too conspiratorial, but could this be a push to remind people that American Born Chinese is a thing that exists? It’s clearly an expensive series, and it also happens to be a very good one, but the fact the company is trying to drum up additional buzz little over a month after it first landed is a touch on the suspicious side to say the least.