ABC is not about to fire Constance Wu from FOtB

ABC

Constance Wu has received praise for her ortrayal of Jessica Huang in Fresh Off the Boat.

ABC Entertainment executive Karey Burke said that there are no plans to replace Fresh Off The Boat star Constance Wu following her recent rant on social media after it was  announced the show would be renewed for a sixth season.

Burke, speaking at the Disney press upfronts event last week, said: “There’s been no thought to recasting Constance. We love what she does on the show. I did actually know that Constance had another opportunity had Fresh Off The Boat not gone forward she would have pursued. But we never really considered not bringing back Fresh Off The Boat, it was just too strong. I’m going to choose to believe Constance’s most recent communication about the show that she’s happy to return and the cast and crew is happy to have her back.”

In no uncertain terms, on May 10, Wu tweeted her disappointment of the return of the ABC sitcom that follows the acculturation of a Taiwanese American family in a Florida suburb. 

"So upset right now that I'm literally crying. Ugh. F---." After a fan responded to Wu, writing the renewal was good news, the actress added, "No it's not." (That tweet has since been deleted, as did a comment, "dislike," Wu left on the ABC sitcom's Instagram account after it posted a photo heralding the sitcom's renewal.)

After her remarks went viral, the actress posted a pair of clarifications. The first said, in part, that the tweets came "on the heels" of a rough day and that she was "grateful" for the renewal. 

The following day, she posted a longer explanation making it clear that she appreciates and enjoys the cast and crew of Fresh Off the Boat and was looking forward to the next season. In that post she said she was extremely upset because she had looked forward to another project that she passionately wanted to do. With the series renewal, plans for that project would have to be rescheduled.

Fresh Off the Boat recently celebrated the taping of its 100th episode and will be starting its sixth season, an unprecedented accomplishment for a show featuring Asian American leads.

Wu's breakout performance as Jessica Huang, the mother of the Huang family, has been universally praised and led to her role in Crazy Rich Asians, the successful film with an all-Asian cast. The critically acclaimed movie proved to be launching pads for a number of its cast members, including Wu.

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