Zhang Ziyi Joins “Godzilla 2”
Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) will be back to tackle Hollywood with her upcoming appearance in the 2019 blockbuster Godzilla: King of Monsters, also known as Godzilla 2.
The film, produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros., is the sequel to the 2014 film Godzilla, a reboot of Toho’s Godzilla franchise. The 2014 film is the first installment in Legendary’s MonsterVerse, a shared universe that features both Godzilla and King Kong. The second film in the MonsterVerse series was Kong: Skull Island, which was released earlier this year.
According to the casting news, Zhang Ziyi will be playing a key role in the film, as her character will significantly impact the events in future MonsterVerse movies.
Appearing alongside Zhang Ziyi will be Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, and returning cast member Ken Watanabe. Legendary has not yet released the details of Zhang Ziyi’s character.
Following Godzilla: King of Monsters will be Godzilla vs. Kong, to be released in 2020.
Godzilla: King of Monsters will be released on March 22, 2019 in North America.
Source: Sohu
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Oh gawd not another token asian character.
The first godzilla with jing tian – it was embarrassing for to even be in it. She had no purpose in it other than to be a vase. I hope ZZY won’t stand for that kinda crap.
@coralie Exactly. I basically cringe now whenever I heard the words “Legendary Entertainment”. Unfortunately, looks like we will continue to see more of this given Legendary Entertainment’s continued foray into Hollywood (Legendary is owned by Mainland China’s Wanda group, which of course also owns the AMC theater chain too now). It seems like whatever Legendary dips their grubby hands into, there is bound to be a “token” character somewhere — in “Kong: Skull Island” it was Jing Tian (who is also the token Asian in “Pacific Rim” which is also co-produced by them)…in “The Great Wall”, they did the reverse and put in a token white guy (Matt Damon) instead and now with the Godzilla sequel the token character will be Zhang Ziyi. I honestly feel that Legendary’s strategy of trying impose their will (or perhaps it is their country’s national will?) on the international market is tremendously flawed and most likely will backfire on them one of these days.
In my opinion, Legendary should take a page out of their fellow compatriots Hunan TV and Huayi Bros’ books — both companies have investment agreements with prominent Hollywood production studios and in fact have provided financial backing for several Hollywood movies the past few years, both small productions and heavy hitters alike (including last year’s runaway hit La La Land), but have chosen to remain low key and not make their presence known (no “token Asian character” for them!) No one likes an aggressive approach , which is the path Legendary is obviously taking….though of course, the ones who lose out the most in the end are the audiences who actually have to pay to watch these productions and endure the the continued stereotypes.
@llwy12 i don’t think i mind them pursuing the whole asian footprint thing aggressively. my issue is that they are putting asian celebrities as placeholders for visibility purposes. there IS no actual point in having them there other than to bear a pretty asian face.
let’s be frank, hollywood is not going to introduce asian as main leads anytime soon. without pressure or investment from outside international fronts, they are going to keep putting asians aside. so i definitely think it’s not a bad idea to have foreign investments, esp those that gives asians an advantage. my problem isn’t with them adding asian stars; it’s that they’re doing so uselessly.
@coralie
The foreign investors only push established Asian artists from outside US into Hollywood. The group who truly need the push, the Asian American actors, is still sadly left behind. I’d rather see Asian Americans like Lewis Tan (ok, I know he’s actually British Asian) get more chances.
The Asian actors who get roles in these China investors projects are those whose main market is in Asian countries, who already made a name for themselves and has nothing to lose if their didn’t make it in Hollywood. They still get lots of project back home. But, the Asian American actors are based in US, they need these roles from US project. Unless they are willing uproot themselves from US and move to Asia like Donnie Yen, Daniel Wu, LeeHom Wang.
@kidd I think any exposure to Asian faces in movies is always better than no face, regardless of who’s in it. It’s true that homegrown actors need to be distributed more evenly, but first, greater acceptance of Asian faces has to be ingrained in Hollywood culture.
A decade to two ago, Asian faces barely graced the screen. It wasn’t until Asia became a greater economic powerhouse that Asian Americans gained a stronger foothold in Hollywood, mostly to entice higher viewership in Asia.
Everything is related to the bottom-line.
@llwy12
I like ‘Legendary Entertainment’. They produced a lot of fantasy themed movies, a genre I like. Didn’t know they have recently been acquired by Wanda until you mentioned it here.
The token asian thing is a bit cringe worthy, but, so far, the movies produced on ‘Legendary Entertainment’ are still entertaining. Warcraft and Kong are two movies that I’m looking forward to their sequels.