American Born Chinese: Michelle Yeoh Reigns in Action-Packed First Footage

Disney+ is digging deep into Chinese mythology for its new series American Born Chinese — and we now have our first look at all the action.

The streamer released a behind-the-scenes featurette on Saturday as part of this year’s D23 Expo, including the first footage from the series. Based on the graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese stars Ben Wang as everyday teen Jin Wang, who’s embarrassed by his mom and is trying his best to be cool. But when he meets a new student at school, “even more worlds collide as Jin is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods,” per the official description.

The featurette gives us a tantalizing glimpse of all the butt-kicking action and eye-popping visual effects, with Jin Wang duking it out with formidable gods like the Monkey King in hand-to-hand combat. Michelle Yeoh, who costars as Guanyin, says: “It’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of magic, there’s a lot of badass action.” (And she should know!)

Kelvin Yu (Bob’s Burgers) serves as showrunner and executive producer, with Destin Daniel Cretto (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) set to direct. American Born Chinese is slated to premiere on Disney+ next year. Press PLAY for a sneak peek, and then hit the comments below to share your first impressions.