Yesterday, it was announced that Rogue One star, Donnie Yen would be joining the cast of Disney’s live-action adaptation of Mulan. Today we are getting two more major announcements in the way of Jet Li and Gong Li. Along with being huge names on their own, the castings also signal major changes that will take the film in a different direction than the animated classic. Yen will be playing Commander Tung, Mulan’s mentor. Meanwhile, Gong Li, best known for ‘The Story of Qui Ju’, ‘Farewell My Concubine’, and ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, will be playing the big bad of the film, an ancient witch. If that doesn’t sound familiar from the cartoon, that’s because it wasn’t in the cartoon. Jet Li will be on-hand as the Emperor of China. In this version of the story, the Emperor will draft a male from each household and Mulan will disguise herself as a man to help save her father from having to go to war.
Mulan opens in theaters on March 27, 2020, but there’s still no word on what they are going to do about Mushu.