Jamie Chung Will Be Getting Down To Business As Mulan In Once Upon A Time

This is Chung in the crackalicious Samurai Girl. It was 6 hours of ABC Family WTFuckery.

EW is reporting Jamie Chung has been cast as Mulan in Once Upon a Time next season.

On the one hand this is fantastic news! Jamie Chung was the star of my current favorite film of the year and is a solid actress. Adding her to the OUAT ensemble can mean very good things and if it gives her more exposure then heck to the yes.

On the oooother hand does this mean we’ll see John Henry or Robin Hood next? Hua Mulan is a Chinese folk hero. Not a fairy tale. Up until now the characters that inhabit the OUAT universe are all entirely fictional. This will be the first time they use a hero whose story is rooted in history and this is kind of a scandalous choice.

Jamie Chung is a Korean American playing a major Chinese folk hero. Not sure if that will go over so well as I’m white and really should have no role in that conversation.

The Chinese are understandably protective of their national folk hero. She is awesome. She’s like Boadicea and Robin Hood and maybe a little bit of King Arthur all rolled into one and back in 1999 Disney appropriated her for a very fun but very problematic film. Now she’s being appropriated again. It could be okay. They may treat her with dignity and respect and not make her an absurd caricature based on a few hours of Hong Kong action films. Or she may be joined by a cgi wise cracking dragon and find herself embroiled in an Emma/Regina/Mulan love triangle while battling her ancestors ghosts in a tea house (that almost sounds kind of awesome).

Source [Entertainment Weekly]