Disney casts Chinese actress Liu Yifei, aka Crystal Liu, as the lead in the live action Mulan.

Disney has just announced that they have cast their female lead in the upcoming live action film adaptation of Mulan. Tapped for the role is Chinese actress Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Li. After traveling around the world and auditioning almost 1,000 applicants, Disney feels that they have landed the perfect actress. Above all they were looking for someone with "credible martial arts skills, the ability to speak English and the most ineffable requirement of all: star quality."

Speaking about the casting, The Hollywood Reporter stated;

"In Liu, Disney found the complete package. Nicknamed "Fairy Sister" by the Chinese public for her pure and innocent looks and image, she has been one of the country's most popular actresses of the current generation since breaking out with a series of hit television dramas in the mid-2000s, while she was still a teenager enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy. She is fluent in English, having lived in Queens, N.Y., for part of her childhood, and acted in English in both 2008's The Forbidden Kingdom, alongside Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and 2014's Outcast, opposite Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen. She also starred opposite Emile Hirsch in Danish auteur Bille August's period romance The Chinese Widow, which opened the Shanghai International Film Festival in June. 

Liu, who has served as a brand ambassador for Dior, Tissot, Garnier and Pantene, most recently starred in the fantasy romance Once Upon a Time, which earned $82.3 million in China this summer. Her other credits include 2012's The Assassins, which earned Liu her first major acting award (at the Macau International Movie Festival), Never Gone and The Four trilogy. She recently signed with WME and continues to be represented by Chinese manager David Chen."

How do you feel about this particular casting? Are you excited for a live action Mulan?

Mulan is currently set to be released in 2019.

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Source: The Hollywood Reporter