The CW continues the renewals of its staple shows. The network has picked up freshman series Kung Fu for a second season and handed a third season of DC’s Stargirl ahead of its sophomore debut.
The two added renewals brings the number of renewals for the 2021-22 season to 15 with only The Republic of Sarah, which launches in June, still pending.
The renewal of Kung Fu is not a surprise. The drama kicked off strong with more than 3.5M viewers watching the premiere episode and it had the highest total viewership number for a Wednesday debut in 7 years since The 100 debuted in 2014.
Kung Fu ”
follows a young Chinese American woman, Nicky Shen, played by Olivia Liang, whose quarter-life crisis causes her to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to San Francisco, she finds her hometown is overrun with crime and corruption and her own parents Jin (Tzi Ma) and Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) are at the mercy of a powerful Triad. Nicky will rely on her tech-savvy sister Althea (Shannon Dang) and Althea’s fiancé Dennis (Tony Chung), pre-med brother Ryan (Jon Prasida), Assistant District Attorney and ex-boyfriend Evan (Gavin Stenhouse), and new love interest Henry (Eddie Liu) as well as her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice…all while searching for the ruthless assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai) and is now targeting her.”
Stargirl was The CW’s most-watched summer debut in six years. The show’s second season premieres on August 10.
Stargirl”
follows high school sophomore Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) and her stepfather Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson) as she leads an unlikely group of young heroes to take on the legacy of DC’s very first superhero team, the Justice Society of America. In the thrilling second season, Courtney and her friends take on one of the most frightening adversaries in DC’s mythology – the dark entity of corruption known as Eclipso.”
Mark Pedowitz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The CW Network stated,
“We are beyond proud to continue to share the stories of Nicky Shen and Courtney Whitmore, two strong, powerful young women at the center of this new generation of hit shows for The CW in Kung Fu and DC’s Stargirl,”
“While each boasts remarkable talent on both sides of the camera, Kung Fu and DC’s Stargirl have not only treated fans to some visually stunning action and high-flying heroics, but they also both strike very powerful emotional chords as they delve into the family dynamics and personal relationships at their core, and we are so excited to see what happens next.”
They join recently renewed series including Superman & Lois, Walker, All American, Batwoman, Charmed, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Dynasty, The Flash, In the Dark, Legacies, Nancy Drew, Riverdale, and Roswell, New Mexico.
