The CW’s released photos, plot details, and the cast list for the upcoming series premiere of Kung Fu, a reworked reboot of the popular 1970s action series that starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine. Season one will debut in the Wednesdays at 8pm ET/PT timeslot currently occupied by Riverdale beginning April 7, 2021. Riverdale will take a mid-season five break and return on July 7th with new episodes.
The new version of Kung Fu flips genders and has Olivia Liang (Legacies) in the lead. The cast also includes Kheng Hua Tan (Crazy Rich Asians) as Mei-Li Shen, Shannon Dang (So Foreign) as Althea Shen, Eddie Liu (Never Have I Ever) as Henry Yan, Gavin Stenhouse (Allegiance) as Evan Hartley, Vanessa Kai (Off the Rails) as Pei-Ling Zhang, Tony Chung as Dennis Soong, and Tzi Ma (Mulan) as Jin Shen.
The CW’s Kung Fu showrunners are Christina M. Kim (Blindspot) and Robert Berens. Kim wrote the first episode and executive produces with Berens, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Martin Gero, and David Madden. Hanelle Culpepper directed the pilot.
2021’s Kung Fu, inspired by Ed Spielman’s original series, is a Berlanti Productions and Quinn’s House production in association with Warner Bros. Television.
The network offered the following description of season one:
“A quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese American woman, Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to San Francisco, she finds her hometown is overrun with crime and corruption and her own parents Jin (Tzi Ma) and Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) are at the mercy of a powerful Triad.
Nicky will rely on her tech-savvy sister Althea (Shannon Dang) and Althea’s fiancé Dennis (Tony Chung), pre-med brother Ryan (Jon Prasida), Assistant District Attorney and ex-boyfriend Evan (Gavin Stenhouse) and new love interest Henry (Eddie Liu) as well as her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice…all while searching for the ruthless assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai) and is now targeting her.”
