Disney’s Mulan hasn’t had the easiest time making it to the big screen. In addition to the controversy surrounding the potential inclusion of a “white savior” character (this was based on an earlier draft of the script), the film was also recently pushed back more than a year, all the way to March 27, 2020. The plus side of that, of course, is it gives more time for this project to bake in the proverbial oven.

Luckily, we come bearing good tidings for the live-action remake of the animated classic. According to Variety, Hong Kong actor and martial artist Donnie Yen has joined the project. The man is probably best known to genre fans from his work on the Ip Man movies, but mainstream audiences likely recognize him as Chirrut Imwe (the blind warrior) in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

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On board to direct Mulan is The Zookeeper’s Wife director Niki Caro, and when last we heard, Jurassic World writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver were brought on board to rewrite the original draft of the screenplay. Of course, Mulan is just one of many films to follow a recent trend from Disney. Why let their animated films simply exist when you can iterate on them in live-action for a whole new audience?

Disney’s has used this approach for films like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Maleficent, and it’s largely been a successful one. Mulan stands alone, however, in that it’s probably the film that’s most suited for live-action. That being said, with its war-time setting and likely set pieces, I wonder if it’ll be hard to tone down the violence…but that’s an issue for the filmmakers and studio to sort out. I’m sure they’ll be just fine.

What do you think of Donnie Yen joining Mulan? Sound off down below!

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SOURCE: Variety