'Rogue One' stars Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Wen Jiang, Donnie Yen, Felicity Jones, Riz Ahmed, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn and Gwendoline Christie attend Star Wars Celebration 2016. (Photo : Getty Images/Ben A. Pruchnie)
It is looking like Disney has to step up their enthusiasm in China when it comes to the franchise of the "Star Wars" universe.
Chinese viewers surprisingly have little familiarity when it comes to the space saga of our most beloved characters like Darth Vader and Yoda. A week has passed since the latest trailer for Rogue One dropped in the Asian country, yet the reactions of the people who saw it appear to be mixed.
The franchise has a lot of upcoming sequels under its sleeve after Rogue One, so Disney has to exert a lot more effort if they wish to penetrate the Chinese audience. The first original trilogy in the 70's and 80's never made it to Chinese cinemas, while the prequel trilogy in the early 2000's were underappreciated.
The plus side is that the "Force Awakens", which is a brand-new sequel to the whole saga released so far, grossed around $120 million in Chinese theaters, but alarmingly this is not ideal, because "Age of Ultron" grossed double at $240 million there, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The directors of Rogue One have strategically included two Chinese stars to the cast to acquire their objective.
China's two biggest stars, Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, will make an appearance in the film. Yen, universally known for his martial arts versatility in the "Ip Man" films, stars as a blind character with expertise in the Force. Wen, who is also a respected actor in China, plays as an expert in weapons and huge artilleries.
There are mixed reactions over this, however. There are Chinese fans who decry the minor roles of Yen and Wen, who may have been recruited for diversity's sake, if anything, which has happened to Fan Bingbing and Wang Xueqi in Iron Man 3, for example. These roles might not be pivotal enough for the Chinese community to appreciate.
To make things a bit optimistic, we can also expect the characters to all have their roles divided equally, and that the Chinese actors will not be playing dispensable roles for the film. If everything goes well, Rogue One could also be a box-office success in China, seeing as the country is currently transforming into the hugest box office globally, according to Cinema Blend.
