Asian American men join cast of sequel of 'To All The Boys I Ever Loved Before'

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Real life pals Noah Centineo and Ross Butler will play best friends.

Two recent additions to the surprise hit of last year, To All the Boys I Ever Loved Before, will help bring a little balance to the cast.

In an EW exclusive, it was revealed that Asian American Ross Butler, best known for his work on Riverdale and 13 Reasons Why, is playing the best friend of Noah Centineo's character, Peter Kavinsky in the Netflix movie's sequel.

In All the Boys, Peter was the main love interest for the lead character, Lara Jean, played by Lana Condor, whose mother in the movie is Korean American. It was the chemistry between Lara Jean and Peter that attracted the large audience and gave Netflix its rom-com hit, especially among the Y.A. demographic.
“We’re thrilled to announce that the endlessly charming Ross Butler has joined the cast of the To All the Boys sequel as Trevor Pike,” producer Matt Kaplan says. “His real-life friendship with Noah brings a natural chemistry and great rapport to the set and we can’t wait for fans to see this friendship play out onscreen.” 

Last week, it was announced that Jordan Fisher would play John Ambrose McClaren, another of Lara Jean's suitors. Fisher recently played Mark Cohen in the Fox Network's Rent: Live.

Lara Condor and Jordan Fisher will star in the sequel of 'To All the Boys I Ever Loved Before.'

“We couldn’t be more excited to have Jordan Fisher join the To All the Boys family as John Ambrose McClaren,” producer Matt Kaplan says. “Jordan’s charisma practically leaps off the screen with anything he does, whether it’s acting, singing, or dancing. There isn’t a more perfect guy who could believably shake things up in Lara Jean and Peter’s world.”

Perhaps with Fisher, who has Cambodian blood in his multi-racial heritage, and Butler, whose mother is Indonesian, the producers hope to deflect some of the early criticism from the AAPI communities because none of Lara Jean's love interests were Asian, reinforcing the stereotype that Asian males are not boyfriend material for many American girls.. 

“I understand the frustration and I share that frustration of wanting to see more Asian American men in media,”responded author Jenny Han in an interview with IndieWire. “For this, all I can say is this is the story that I wrote.”

Filming on this project is already underway and will air on Netflix later this year or in 2020.

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TGIF Feature: Sequel announced for 'To All the Boys I Ever Loved'

NETFLIX

Peter (Noah Centineo) and Lara Jean (Lara Covey) in Netflix's surprise hit.

IT'S ALL RIGHT to get excited. Netflix announced that a sequel to the network's most popular original movie, To All The Boys I Ever Loved, is in the works.

While Crazy Rich Asians was making history and busting stereotypes on the big screen, To All the Boys I Ever Loved was doing the same thing on the small screen. The two movies, along with John Cho in Searching, made up what has become known as Asian August. Three movies showing Asian Americans like they are rarely depicted.

The sequel the romantic comedy was announced via social media with its star, Lana Condor, lying on her bed talking on her cell phone with costar Noah Centineo. The chemistry between the two as Lara Jean and Peter, was one of the big reasons the movie attracted a lot of young fans.

In the teaser, after speaking with Noah, Lana answers another call and says, “You’re gonna make the perfect John Ambrose McClaren,” to an unidentified person on a phone call. Does that mean actor Jordan Burtchett won't reprise his role as John?

In the original movie, based on the novel by Jenny Han, it ended with John Ambrose making an appearance at Lara Jean's door, a perfect lead-in to the next book in the trilogy, P.S. I Still Love You.

“The whole reason why I wrote a second book was for the character of John Ambrose McClaren, who is a fan favorite, and he’s a favorite of mine too,” Han told Indiewire.

The only criticism of All the Boys was that none of Lara Jean's love interests were of Asan descent. Han seemed sincere when she said “I understand the frustration and I share that frustration of wanting to see more Asian-American men in media,”

Is it too much to ask that John Ambrose McClaren be recast with an Asian American actor?

Spoiler Alert!

A word of caution: Fans of Lara Jean and Peter may find the second book a bit disconcerting. 

Condor told Indiewire: “I did read the second book because I was desperate to know what was going on, and it wrecked my world. It wrecked my world.” I was so pissed. I texted Jenny. I was like, ‘How could you do this to me?’”
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