confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that a new “Wonder Woman” movie is being written right now. But fans shouldn’t expect to see Gal Gadot back as Diana, because while this is the third live-action “Wonder Woman” film, it is almost certainly going to be a reboot, not a sequel to “Wonder Woman 1984.” (Sorry, Connie Nielsen.)
The previous silver screen Wonder Woman movies were part of the now-dead DC Extended Universe. We’re about a month out from seeing if Gunn’s DC Universe Take Two can soar with “Superman.” So far, of the DC Trinity (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), we only have David Corenswet cast as Superman. But Gunn does have plans for the other two.
Batman (specifically, the Batman who cameoed in Gunn’s animated “Creature Commandos”) is set to star in “The Brave and the Bold.” Directed by Andy Muschietti, this film will see Bruce Wayne partnered with his son, Damian Wayne/Robin. How will this work with “The Batman Part II” starring Robert Pattinson due in 2027? TBD!
Until now, we didn’t know that DC Studios was going to make a “Wonder Woman” movie, but the hints were there. One of the earliest projects the studios announced was a TV series focusing on the origins of the Amazons — the all-women Greek tribe that Diana belongs to. One of the villains of “Creature Commandos” was the Amazon witch Circe (typically a foe of Diana), and Wonder Woman herself cameoed in a vision sequence.
With the “Wonder Woman” reboot, hopefully the mistakes of past films can be corrected. (None of the “Diana is the daughter of Zeus” nonsense this time, please.) Even better, Wonder Woman will no longer endure the indignity of having only been played on the silver screen by the actress Gal Gadot!
Which actress out there should take up Wonder Woman’s lasso next?
5. Monica Barbaro
Paramount Pictures
In 2023, Monica Barbaro appeared in the romantic comedy “At Midnight.” She played Sophie Wilder, a Hollywood actress appearing in a superhero film (and she spoke to /Film about her “At Midnight” experience.) So, why not get her for the real thing, specifically the greatest female superhero ever?
Barbaro showed action star potential in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” There, she played Natasha Trace, one of the next generation of fighter pilots (callsign: Phoenix). To play Phoenix, Barbaro got as ripped as any of her male co-stars and the film wasn’t shy to show it. But she’s more than just a physical presence.
Monica Barbaro is also now an Oscar-nominated actress thanks to her performance as folk singer legend Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown,” director James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic. Barbaro’s scenes as Baez are mostly shared with Timothée Chalamet as Dylan; they’ve got chemistry aplenty, but you can feel her star power shining even brighter than his. “Wonder Woman” would (ideally) let Barbaro be a star who no man can measure up to.
Superficially, Monica Barbaro has just got the right gorgeous look for Wonder Woman too.
4. Naomi Scott
Paramount Pictures
Gunn’s DC Universe should definitely look for rising stars. One who’s got no previous superhero baggage is Naomi Scott. She began her onscreen acting at the Disney Channel, appearing in the underrated “Lemonade Mouth” (basically “the Breakfast Club forms a band”).
Now, Scott’s movie star take off took a bit of a stumble thanks to 2017’s “Power Rangers” and 2019’s “Charlie’s Angels.” But Scott came roaring back to remind us of her talent in 2024’s “Smile 2.” That was a sequel that totally surpassed the original and a lot of its strength rests on Scott as Skye Riley, a pop star and recovering addict. She starts being stalked by something much worse than an obsessed fan; no matter how self-destructive Skye gets, Scott keeps her character grounded and the audience rooting for her.
As Wonder Woman, Scott probably wouldn’t get to use her singing skills (unless the Music Meister shows up). But I’ll point to another of her Disney roles as Wonder Woman-esque: Princess Jasmine in the live-action “Aladdin.” That’s not a good movie, don’t get me wrong, but Scott is pretty good in it! The movie’s reinvention of Jasmine, a princess who wants to use her power to help people, gives a taste of how Naomi Scott could play Wonder Woman.
One (the only?) problem with Scott as Wonder Woman is that she’s on the short side (reportedly 5 ‘4). Wonder Woman is generally depicted as tall, almost or just as tall as Superman and Batman. (Compare past Wonder Women: Lynda Carter is 5 ‘9 and Gal Gadot is 5 ’10). That’s not disqualifying by any stretch, but still something to consider as DC Studios weigh options for its new Diana.
3. Courtney Eaton
Showtime
Long ago, “Mad Max” director George Miller was set to make a Justice League movie that got shelved just before it was to start filming. But Miller still got to work with his pick for Wonder Woman — Megan Gale — when he cast her in his 2015 opus, “Mad Max: Fury Road.” That picture, starring the Wonder Woman who never was, also features an actor who would kill as the next Wonder Woman: Courtney Eaton.
Eaton (who was 16 when “Fury Road” shot in 2012) played Cheedo the Fragile, one of the hostage wives of warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). These days, she’s more known for the Showtime series “Yellowjackets,” about a girls’ soccer team that crash lands in the Canadian wilderness and struggles to survive. Eaton plays Lottie Matthews, the unstable prophet convinced there’s a higher power guiding her and her friends. “Yellowjackets” is a show about women, stranded away from civilization, tearing each other down, unlike the Amazons who build each other and a utopia up.
Part of the fun of “Yellowjackets” is that it’s a showcase for some of the best young actresses working — Courtney Eaton is no exception. She plays Lottie as sad and tormented but also very creepy. Lottie is also a character of strong conviction; Eaton could channel that side into Wonder Woman and play a stronger, fiercer, and more resolved character, one who truly helps people the way Lottie tries and fails to. Eaton has got a kind smile, one that Diana would give back to a young girl looking up to her. In general, Eaton ticks off so many boxes for the traditional Wonder Woman look.
2. Katy O’Brian
A24
Wonder Woman preaches a message of love and peace, but she’s also a person of action. She should look like and carry herself as someone who could beat you up, because spoiler alert, she can!
Actress Katy O’Brian would easily fit Wonder Woman and not just because she already has the muscles for the part. O’Brian appeared in a small part in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” as Jentorra, an alien warrior in the Quantum Realm. If Marvel Studios isn’t going to give Katy O’Brian a huge role, then DC Studios should.
The part that got people paying attention to Katy O’Brian was in 2024’s “Love Lies Bleeding,” an essential addition to the buff women film canon. She played Jackie Cleaver, a body builder who becomes involved with the manager of her gym, Lou Langston (Kristen Stewart). Jackie, taking steroids to prepare for a competition, murders JJ (Dave Franco), the abusive husband of Lou’s sister Beth (Jena Malone). The lovers go through some hellish blowback, but ultimately get their happy ending. (Another reason to cast O’Brian — let Wonder Woman be queer, as she’s supposed to be.)
As Jackie, O’Brian’s curly hair and huge muscles make her the spitting image of George Pérez’s Wonder Woman. Katy O’Brian is an action movie star just waiting for the perfect part and Wonder Woman could be it.
1. Adria Arjona
Lucasfilm
The running favorite to play Wonder Woman next is Adria Arjona. She has been on a roll recently, from her roles in both television (Bix Caleen in “Star Wars: Andor”) and film (Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man”). Arjona has been helped a lot by her comedy skills, but her performance as Bix especially shows how she might approach a more serious and action-heavy role like a superhero. While Bix has to make compromises in a morally grey universe, Diana would let Arjona play a beacon of hope.
Wonder Woman fans aren’t pitching Arjona as Diana just because she’s a popping and very talented actress. She’s also worked with the man in charge before.
Arjona’s first feature film role, 2016’s “The Belko Experiment,” was written by James Gunn. Gunn likes to reuse actors; Nathan Fillion shows up in almost all of his movies, for instance. So if he’s (presumably) going to play a part in casting the new Wonder Woman, he might want someone he’s worked with before. It wouldn’t be a nepotism hire, though, since Arjona has kept proving why she deserves her roles with each new one she takes.
During the “Andor” season 2 press tour, CinemaBlend asked Arjona about the speculation of her playing Wonder Woman. She obviously didn’t confirm anything, or if Gunn has even talked with her about being in the DC Universe, but she did say “I love James Gunn” and crossed her fingers in hope.
As Diana, Adria Arjona would be charming, funny, and capable Wonder Woman we need and deserve.
“Super Mario Bros. Movie,” or “A Minecraft Movie,” or an “Assassin’s Creed” movie, there was “Halo: The Movie.” Or at least, there was supposed to be. As the Xbox’s premiere video game franchise and one of the 2000s’ most revolutionary first-person shooters thanks to its evolved take on shooting combat, rich lore, and expressive world design, “Halo: Combat Evolved” was an immediate smash. The game featured tons of cinematic gameplay, with awe-inspiring vistas and a unique take on the classic “space marines versus aliens” genre, and it became an obvious candidate to bring to Hollywood.
At this point, video game adaptations were mostly a joke. They were seen as mostly low-budget schlock that barely resembled their source material. With “Halo,” Microsoft hoped to change that, and their first step was to bring Alex Garland, who would later go on to direct projects such as 2014’s “Ex Machina.” At that point, he was most famous for writing Danny Boyle’s modern horror classic “28 Days Later,” and he was tasked to write the “Halo” script for a whopping seven-figure payday. But the world of film development is never a straight line, and with the stakes so high, the pressure was on.
The long and winding road to Halo eventually led to a dead end
Paramount+
Garland’s script, which you can read here, leans into the war movie aesthetic of the original game, dropping audiences directly into the middle of the battle against the intergalactic religious zealots known as the Covenant. The script itself has a spartan efficiency with its prose, but for anyone not even a little familiar with the universe of “Halo,” it practically needs a glossary to understand. Without an explanation of what a “warthog vehicle” is, it’s easy to imagine some confused studio head asking their intern why this soldier is riding into battle on a giant feral hog.
Microsoft, for its part, was optimistic about the film’s prospects. The company’s offer to the studios for the project was $10 million against 15% of the film’s gross, meaning the studio producing the film would receive a relatively small share of any actual profits. Most studios balked, except for 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures, which came together to shoulder the burden. Peter Jackson then joined as a producer, with Guillermo Del Toro circling the project before newcomer Neill Blomkamp signed on as the film’s director.
With such a high sticker price on the project, the studios offered the team an ultimatum: Drop their “first-dollar” revenue deal, or the project was over. They refused, and “Halo: The Movie” was dead. But just like in “Halo,” the team respawned to continue the fight.
With Halo gone, we got ‘District 9,’ ‘Sunshine’, and ‘Ex Machina’
A24
Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp went on to make the surprise hit “District 9”, which would go on to be nominated for four Oscars, while Alex Garland built up his impressive career as a writer, first by continuing to work in the science fiction space by penning Danny Boyle’s criminally misunderstood “Sunshine.” Then, while he was on set for his adaptation of “Dredd,” Garland reportedly got his first taste as a film director, and would from that point on continue to direct, helming a string of science fiction marvels, including “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation.”
For their part, Microsoft continued to push to make something out of its flagship video game, producing a handful of direct-to-video live-action and animated “Halo” projects before eventually releasing its much-touted premium streaming series for Paramount+. The show’s two seasons attempted to differentiate themselves from the games, but only received mixed reviews before getting cancelled in 2024, almost 20 years after Garland wrote his original script.
It just goes to show that even if the Master Chief could take on the Covenant all by himself, he’s still no match for Hollywood producers.
How’s this for a R-rated animated comedy idea: A pooch and his doggy friends go out for one wild night on the town before he’s set to get neutered. Good, right?
“I think it’s the best elevator pitch I’ve ever had,” says Genndy Tartakovsky, about the concept for Fixed, his first R-rated feature, which premiered at the Annecy film festival on Wednesday. “Every time I say it, everybody laughs. You have the vision of a movie, right there.”
That pitch, back in 2009, was enough to get Tartakovsky in the door at Sony Pictures Animation. Tartakovsky was already an established, and Emmy-winning hitmaker, at Warner Bros. Cartoon Network, thanks to shows like Dexter’s Laboratory, Powderpuff Girls and Samurai Jack.Fixed was set to be his first feature, and Sony’s first-ever R-rated animated film.
Then everything changed.
Genndy Tartakovsky
Genndy Tartakovsky
“We started working on it, developing it, and then the executive that bought the pitch moved on to another part of the studio,” Tartakovsky recalls. “New executives came in, and they’re like: ‘Yeah, we don’t want to do this.’ Back then, 2008/2009, things were so different. Nobody’s making R-rated films. This is pre-Sausage Party [Seth Rogen’s raunchy animated hit from 2016], pre-all that stuff.”
Around the same time, Tartakovsky lost his day job. Samurai Jack got cancelled after its fourth season on Cartoon Network [the show would be revived 13 years later for a final 5th season on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim].
“It was a really dark time for me, I didn’t know what I was going to do,” says Tartakovsky. “Then, about two weeks later, I got a call from Sony. They’d fired the directors from Hotel Transylvania. The movie was struggling, and they asked me to take a look. I went in, looked at it and went: Yeah, this is a crazy romp. You got Adam Sandler, all these monsters. It should just be funny. I sat down, wrote 2 pages of gags. And they hired me.”
Tartakovsky got into the Hotel Transylvania business, directing the first three films in the franchise, and co-writing and executive producing the 4th. Tartakovsky’s three Hotel Transylvania films were the most successful features ever from Sony Pictures Animation. All three remain in the studio’s top five, just behind the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse blockbusters.
But Tartakovsky never gave up on Fixed.
“As the new [Sony] executives started to believe in me, I kept digging it up, saying: ‘Hey, what about Fixed?’,” he says. “We’d do another pass on it. People would say: ‘Nah, nobody’s ready for it.’ We’d put it away. I tried to shop it to other studios. Perhaps would get it, but nobody wanted to commit.”
It wasn’t until Kristine Belson was named president of Sony Animation in 2015 that things started to change. “It became less about the brand of the studio and more about just getting good projects made,” says Tartakovsky. He kept pitching Fixed. In 2019, 10 years after it bought his original pitch, Sony gave him a green light.
The core of the story, with characters inspired by his real-life pack of high school buddies — “Bull (voiced by Pitch Perfect star Adam Devine) is my buddy Steve, Rocco (Idris Elba) is based on my friend Mike,” Tartakovsky notes — was still there but Fixed had gone through multiple drafts and stylistic changes. Originally a hand-drawn 2D feature, at one point it was conceived in full computer-generated 3D. Tartakovsky showed the 3D mock-ups at a work-in-progress screening at Annecy two years ago, noting that the sight of Bull’s intact testicles, in full 3D, “was just too much.”
When New Line got on board to co-produce, the project morphed into a 2D, more traditional Looney Tunes-style animation.
“It helped with the budget, because I don’t know how to do CG cheaply and make it look expensive, but I can do that in 2D because of all the TV stuff that I’ve done,” says Tartakovsky. “But 2D was what I wanted to do all along. So it was a little accidental miracle.”
Adam Devine voices Bull and Kathryn Hahn his love interest Honey in ‘Fixed’
The voice cast — with Kathryn Hahn as Bull’s love interest Honey, a dirty-talking purebred, Fred Armisen as a nattily-dressed Dachshund Fetch, Bobby Moynihan as the perverted poop-munching mutt Lucky, and Beck Bennett as the snooty showdog Sterling — came together quickly.
Then, Fixed almost got clipped again. It was a victim of the great purge of David Zaslav, who took over as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery following the two companies’ 2022 merger, and chopped or shelved several films, including Batgirl, Coyote vs. Acme, and Fixed.
The rights to Fixed reverted back to Sony, which tossed shopped the project into the market, for Netflix to fetch. Following its Annecy premiere, the streamer will let Fixed out, worldwide, on Aug. 13.
After 16 years, 3 studios and endless character designs and script drafts, Tartakovsky says he’s proud that Fixed is making it to screens as he originally intended. Even a particularly raunchy scene, an episode of, shall we say, canine intimacy, involving Bull, Honey and Sterling, made the final cut.
“That scene was in there in my first pitch, and every new executive who’d come in and read the script, that was the first scene they wanted to get rid of. But I thought, without that scene, there’s no movie” he says. “If I had sacrificed that scene, maybe this film would have gotten made earlier. But it’s the heart and soul of the film. So to watch it with an audience [here at Annecy] and here them laughing all the way through was the most incredible thing.”
GLAAD has released its 2024 box office report card, and Hollywood’s top 10 distributors mostly got “poor” or “insufficient” marks as overall representation for LGBTQ characters and inclusion is tilting downwards.
The 13th annual edition of GLAAD’s Studio Responsibility Index found the number of inclusive films had fallen for the second year running. The LGBTQ advocacy organization found 59 films out of 250 contained an LGBTQ character (or 23.6 percent) in 2024.
That marked a decrease from 70 out of 256 films (or 27.3 percent) for 2023 and from a three-year high of 100 films out of 350 (or 28.5 percent) being inclusive in 2022. “In a time when the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community faces unchecked harmful and false rhetoric in news media and are treated as a wedge issue by politicians, these stories are vital,” GLAAD argued in the study.
The latest SRI report tracked films released in the 2024 calendar year by A24, Amazon, Apple TV+, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery. That includes subsidiary distribution labels and majority-owned streaming services.
Top of the class for 2024 was A24, which got a “good” grade as 9 of its 16 films last year, or 56 percent, were judged LGBTQ inclusive. Those box office standouts included the romantic thriller Love Lies Bleeding; Problemista, a surrealist comedy; and Queer, about an American ex-pat living in an LGBTQ community in Mexico City.
Amazon and NBCUniversal got “fair” ratings, while Warner Bros. Discovery, Apple TV+, Sony and Paramount Global received “insufficient” marks. Netflix, Lionsgate and The Walt Disney Company all scored “poor” grades.
Stand-out films tracked in the SRI report beyond the A24 titles include Drive-Away Dolls (NBCUniversal), Mean Girls (Paramount Pictures) and My Old Ass (Amazon). Overall, Hollywood films had fewer LGBTQ characters last year, compared to earlier years, and most were gay and lesbian roles, the study found.
And only two of the 59 films tracked in 2024 had transgender roles — Universal’s Monkey Man, where Indian actor Vipin Sharma played Alpha, the leader of a trans community known in India as hijras, and Netflix’s Emilia Pérez, which co-starred the Oscar-nominated Karla Sofía Gascón.
GLAAD has worked for four decades to secure fair, accurate and diverse representation of the LGBTQ community in the media and entertainment industries and to advocate for LGBTQ equality. The GLAAD report said major studios and streamers were missing an opportunity to reach growing LGBTQ audiences domestically and overseas.
“It is clear that studios need to diversity their slates with a variety of story types at staggered budgets to ensure stability and ultimately growth,” the study concluded.
Comedy Central’s hit animated series “South Park” has been a cultural Rorschach test and notorious for poking fun at everyone and the kitchen sink. Show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are well known for some of the most biting modern satire, whether it is through their series, original films, or even a blockbuster Broadway musical. Parker and Stone’s writing sensibilities often fixate on the hottest topics of the day, and “South Park” isn’t afraid to parody the era’s most popular celebrities.
In 2009, season 13 of “South Park” kicked off with one of its most memorable episodes of the 2000s. In the episode “The Ring,” the primary subject of satirization was the Jonas Brothers and Disney. At the time of its premiere, “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” was hitting theaters, and the boy band’s rise caught Parker and Stone’s attention. The episode highlighted the brothers’ purity rings, which they wore in real life due to their Christian upbringing. Along with the band’s satirical depiction, the episode introduced the “South Park” version of Mickey Mouse, who serves as the tyrannical head of The Walt Disney Company and would appear in future episodes of the series.
It has been 16 years since “The Ring” first aired, and countless boy band acts cosigned by the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon have come and gone since the initial rise of the Jonas Brothers. Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas have all grown up and have continued to make music together as a band, as well as have individual careers since then. Regarding their perspective on how “South Park” parodied them, you may be surprised at their reaction.
Joe Jonas is a South Park fan
Cynthia Parkhurst/Prime Video
Joe Jonas appeared on Mythical Kitchen’s “Last Meals,” where he reflected on how “South Park” depicted the Jonas Brothers, purity culture, and Disney. Given that the writers went for the jugular, the episode’s material could have easily struck some sensitive chords for the band. But in the case of Jonas, he thought it was an honor for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to satirize him:
“Our skin was not as thick back then… I think I was the only brother that loved it. I thought it was hilarious, because I watched ‘South Park,’ and I was like, ‘This is so funny, I know what they’re doing, they make fun of everyone!’ To be made fun of by a comic is usually a sign that they give a s—, and they care, and it’s funny. They really went for us.”
Joe Jonas also expressed that while his brothers’ band was specifically represented in “The Ring,” he believes that “South Park” was looking to mock the corporate entity of The Walt Disney Company, as well as the culture of what boy bands represent. “I think they were going more so on, like, the idea of what it is,” he continued.
Nick Jonas had an interesting response to the episode
Comedy Central
After “The Ring” aired, a report from the Canwest News Service claimed that the Jonas Brothers’ publicist forbade reporters from asking the band any questions regarding “South Park.” In a 2009 interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Nick Jonas expressed that the band had not seen the episode, citing their busy schedule, but took the satirization in stride:
“We are always open to make fun of ourselves. For us, we’re so focused on what we’re doing with this tour and our album, we didn’t have much time to see it.”
Nick Jonas would further reflect on the “South Park” episode in a 2016 Reddit AMA (via E! Online), revealing that he has since watched the episode multiple times, and echoing his brother Joe’s sentiment that being poked fun at by Trey Parker and Matt Stone was an honor:
“When it first came out I didn’t think it was funny to be honest, but probably because I was actually living all of that in real time, so it just made it harder to come and live your life as a young person and have all that going on … But years later and once the purity rings were no longer around, it was very funny to me and I’ve actually watched the episode a few times.”
“South Park” is available to stream on Max, but will soon move to Paramount+ later this year.
praised for its portrayal of Asian-American identity. Wu is currently set to star in the upcoming sequel film (release date is TBD). On top of that, she also starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in the provocative “Hustlers.”
Although “Fresh Off the Boat” catapulted Wu’s career to new horizons, she didn’t leave the series unscathed. In 2019, after the show was renewed for its final season, Wu expressed anger at the renewal through comments on social media. She received public backlash at the time but addressed the controversy by stating that the renewal cost her a role she was looking forward to. Years later, in 2022, she revealed to ABC News that she was a victim of sexual harassment while working on the show, which surely influenced her reaction about the renewal. She also confessed on “Good Morning America” that the cyberbullying she endured led her to attempt suicide.
In recent years, Wu is finding her confidence again. She is currently starring in “The Terminal List,” a military drama fronted by Chris Pratt. She also was the voice of Daphne in the adult animated series “Velma,” but the series was unfortunately cancelled after two seasons in 2024. Most interestingly, Wu has returned to the theater stage, starring in three productions since 2022 including “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Lastly, Wu penned a memoir entitled “Making a Scene,” about her upbringing, acting career, and the harassment she faced on the set of “Fresh Off the Boat.” Her complicated relationship to the show forged a clarity about her life and career that has strengthened her in this next chapter.
Randall Park (Louis Huang)
Marvel Studios/Disney
The other breakout star of the series, Randall Park as Louis Huang was a great onscreen contrast to Constance Wu’s Jessica. Easygoing and desperate for American acceptance, he was a pushover but not to the point of incompetence. He was still driven and a solid provider to his family.
Park’s comedic chops on “Fresh Off the Boat” increased his acumen in Hollywood and landed him roles in a variety of genres on the big and small screens. He’s appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as FBI agent Jimmy Woo in the second and third “Ant Man” movies and the “WandaVision” TV series, as well as the DC Expanded Universe as Dr. Stephen Shin in both “Aquaman” films. Like Wu, he also took a lead role in a romcom, Netflix’s “Always Be My Maybe” (featuring a superb Keanu Reeves cameo), shortly before “Fresh Off the Boat” ended.
More recently, he’s had regular roles in TV shows such as “Young Rock,” “Watson,” and Shondaland’s new Netflix show “The Residence,” which might be of interest to you if you’re into Agatha Christie and murder mysteries. The most interesting turn for Park’s career since “Fresh Off the Boat” ended is his spate of voice acting parts in shows like “Tuca & Bertie,” “Human Resources,” and “Big Mouth.” He’s even dipped his toe in directing, with his first feature film “Shortcomings” released in 2023.
Hudson Yang (Eddie Huang)
National Geographic
The initial star of the “Fresh Off the Boat,” Hudson Yang’s character was based on the real life upbringing of restauranteur Eddie Huang in Orlando, Florida. As the eldest son of first-generation immigrants, Eddie struggled with the tension of honoring his heritage, American assimilation, and rebelling to forge his own identity. Pulling autobiographical details from Eddie Huang’s book of the same name, the character version of Eddie was also huge fan of hip-hop and basketball. Toward the end of the series, Eddie took an interest in culinary arts, hinting at the real man’s future in the restaurant industry.
Yang’s trajectory appears to be no different. He’s invested in a Vietnamese restaurant in Los Angeles and now has his own cooking show called “Crash Course Cuisine with Hudson Yang” on NatGeo. He spoke with Mochi Magazine in October 2024 and detailed his journey to “Fresh Off the Boat,” his college experience at Harvard, and his culinary aspirations. Even with his culinary focus, Yang is still taking roles in less mainstream projects such as “Order Up!,” “Honor Student,” and “Extremely Unique Dynamic.”
He’s taking things as they come for now, telling the Mochi Magazine, “From going to Harvard and working on the show, I’ve learned that the less you take yourself seriously, and the more you just sit down and enjoy the process, the better things end up.”
Forrest Wheeler (Emery Huang)
ABC/20th Century Fox Television
The middle child of the family, Emery Huang (Forrest Wheeler) was the best of both worlds between his two brothers: academically high-achieving like Evan but also inclined to stir shenanigans like Eddie. He was the most sociable of the three brothers, and as such, he took an interest in acting by the end of the show. The actor, Forrest Wheeler, had small parts in “Mortal Kombat: Legacy,” “New Girl,” and “Community” before landing his main cast role on “Fresh Off the Boat.” Since the show ended, though, it appears that Wheeler has effectively retired from acting, or at least he doesn’t have any acting credits beyond his role as Emery at the time of this writing.
He is currently attending New York University, and from the looks of his Instagram, he’s living the New York twenty-something experience. His sparse posting (approximately once a year) suggests that he wants to live his life privately away from the spotlight. Especially for child stars, it’s not uncommon for these actors to disappear from Hollywood after their breakout role.
Ian Chen (Evan Huang)
ABC/20th Century Fox Television
As the genius youngest son of the family, Evan Huang (Ian Chen) was his mother’s golden child, at times to his chagrin. At first, Evan relished his role as the perfect son, but by the end of the series he realized there was more to life than academic achievement. In a slightly different way, Ian Chen also accepted that you can be more than what is expected of you.
Like his TV older brother, Chen seems to be solely focusing on school at the moment. After graduating high school in 2024, he began attending, you guessed it, Harvard! This is especially funny given that the series ends with Evan graduating Harvard and giving a valedictorian speech. Chen acknowledged how “life imitates art” on his Instagram in a cheeky post. Based on his sporadic posting on social media, it appears he’s living the normal life of a college student. If you want your fix of Ian Chen, for now you’ll have to sate yourself with his previous role as Ethan Choi in “Shazam” and the sequel “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” a movie with an odd affinity for Skittles.
The actors that played the Huang sons have shown that they share key similarities to their characters. In hindsight, it sheds a different light on what they each brought to their roles: an authenticity that made each boy’s personality believable.
Lucille Soong (Jenny Huang)
Walt Disney Pictures
Jenny Huang (Lucille Soong), Louis’ mother and grandmother to the Huang sons, played the typical sitcom elder role: always ready to make a witty comments to herself about the family’s shenanigans. She spent about half the series only speaking in Mandarin with subtitles. Similar to Ray Wise (further down this list), Soong has been in countless small roles across her career spanning seven decades, including “The Mini-Affair,” “The Joy Luck Club,” “One More Time,” and “Desperate Housewives.” Coming up on her 90th birthday this year, her most well-known roles have been in this century.
After playing Grandma Huang, she voiced Dang Hu, the chieftess of Talon, in “Raya and the Last Dragon” and portrayed Grandma Lin in the Hallmark miniseries “Holidazed.” But millennials best remember her as Pei Pei’s mom in the 2003 “Freaky Friday.” If you were hoping for Soong to reprise her role alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in “Freakier Friday,” set to release in August 2025, you’re in luck, because she’s back too!
Chelsey Crisp (Honey Ellis)
ABC/20th Century Fox Television
Honey Ellis was Jessica’s best friend, confidant, and sometimes punching bag. With a smile that lit up any room, she was the perfect foil to Jessica’s serious nature. Once her time as Honey was over, Chelsey Crisp had a handful of small parts on TV. She had a season two role in “Young Rock” as campaign staff for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s future presidential campaign. (“Young Rock” and “Fresh Off the Boat” were both created by Nahnatchka Khan, so the move to “Young Rock” was very convenient.) Crisp was also a main cast member on Amazon Prime’s short-lived “Ten Percent,” which aired on BBC America in the United States.
According to her website, she is slated to star in the action-comedy film “Balls Up” alongside Mark Wahlberg, Benjamin Bratt, and Eric Andre. She’ll also be featured in the upcoming heist film “Eenie Meanie,” which features an ensemble cast of Steve Zahn, Marshawn Lynch, and none other than former castmate, Randall Park. It wrapped filming in summer 2024, but an official release date has yet to be announced.
Ray Wise (Marvin Ellis)
ABC/20th Century Fox Television
Marvin Ellis (Ray Wise), Honey’s old-school but well-meaning husband, became a season regular in season three because of his funny one-liners. Judging the book by its cover would have you assume Marvin was a curmudgeon, but he grew to be more open-minded because of his interactions with the Huangs.
Decades before “Fresh Off the Boat,” Ray Wise was best known for his role as Leland Palmer in “Twin Peaks.” But that was hardly his only role — a skilled character actor, he also starred in various main and supporting roles in “RoboCop,” “Jeepers Creepers 2,” and “X-Men: First Class.” You might remember him from “24” as Vice President Hal Gardner, “Reaper” as The Devil, or “Mad Men” as Ed Baxter. He’s one of those actors whose face you know because he’s been in everything, and his filmography is filled with one-time appearances for roles big and small.
Since “Fresh Off the Boat” ended, his most prominent role was in “The Young and the Restless,” where he returned as Ian Ward from 2024 to 2025. He’s also made small appearances in “All Rise,” “Home Economics,” and “Psych 3: This Is Gus.”
