Hulu has announced that Interior Chinatown will launch on the streaming service on Tuesday, November 19, 2024. All ten episodes of the series will be available on that day.
Based on Charles Yu’s award-winning book of the same name, the show follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural called “Black & White.”
Relegated to the background, Willis goes through the motions of his on-screen job, waiting tables and dreaming about a whole world beyond Chinatown.
When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web in Chinatown, his family’s buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.
The Interior Chinatown cast includes Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, Chloe Bennet, Lisa Gilroy, Sullivan Jones, Archie Kao, and Diana Lin.
Series creator Charles Yu serves as executive producer, along with Dan Lin and Lindsey Liberatore for Rideback; Jeff Skoll, Miura Kite, and Elsie Choi for Participant; Garrett Basch for Dive; and Taika Waititi, who also directed the pilot. The ten-episode drama is produced by 20th Television.
Yu’s novel is officially described as follows: “Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop.
“Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?
“After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family.
“Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.”
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills to provide the latest news on streaming, movies, and TV shows. He previously created the websites ComingSoon, SuperHeroHype, and ShockTillYouDrop.