Michelle Yeoh has been nothing short of an icon in the years since she broke out in Supercop opposite Jackie Chan and wowed audiences with her performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. However, following her Best Actress Academy Award win for leading the Best Picture Oscar winner, 2022’s Everything Everywhere All At Once, she is busier now than ever.
In just the past year, the multi-talented, Malaysian-born actor reunited with several of her EEAAO co-stars in Disney+’s American Born Chinese, starred in a Netflix original series called The Brothers Sun, was part of the star-studded ensemble for the Agatha Christie-inspired mystery, A Haunting in Venice, and lent her voice to several projects, including the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts voice cast as Airazor. There is plenty more for fans to look to forward, as you can see in our guide to the upcoming Michelle Yeoh movies and other projects, below.
Wicked (November 22, 2024)
While one could consider some of the stunts she has performed from her resume of action movie classics as balletic, the musical is one of the few film genres that Michelle Yeoh has not yet participated in. However, that is about to change soon when she appears in the upcoming 2024 movie, Wicked, which hits theaters in the fall.
Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit which was inspired by Gregory McGuire’s 1995 novel, Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz that chronicles the friendship between Elphaba (a.k.a., the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande in one of her first starring roles in a theatrically released film) years before Dorothy blew into the magical land from Kansas. Yeoh reunites with director John M. Chu, who directed her in the Crazy Rich Asians cast as Eleanor Young, to play Madame Morrible — the headmaster of Elphaba and Galinda’s school, Shiz University.
Wicked: Part Two (November 26, 2025)
The 2024 release of Wicked will only tell the first half of the tale and the epic conclusion to the powerful, otherworldly story will be presented in Wicked: Part Two, which is set for a fall release on our upcoming 2025 movies schedule. According to the film’s official website, the story will see Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship put to the ultimate test following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), which leads each of them on vastly different paths. Yeoh is also still involved as Madame Morrible, who transitions from her job as Shiz University headmaster to becoming the press secretary for The Wizard.
Avatar 3 (December 19, 2025)
It was in 2019 when we discovered that Yeoh would be entering the world of Pandora as part of James Cameron’s planned sequels to his record-breaking, Oscar-winning 2009 epic, Avatar. While she was nowhere to be seen in 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, an Instagram photo posted by producer Jon Landau suggests that we can expect to see her in the upcoming third Avatar movie, which is set for a winter 2025 release.
According to a post shared by the Avatar franchise’s official X account (when it was still called Twitter), Yeoh is playing a scientist named Dr. Karina Minogue, but further details regarding the role have yet to be revealed. We also have yet to learn if Dr. Minogue will be part of the plots for Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.
The Mother (TBD)
In the aforementioned Netflix original TV show, The Brothers Sun, Yeoh stars as a woman whose two adult sons each become involved in the criminal lifestyle in vastly different ways — with one being an experienced assassin, while the other suddenly needs his older sibling’s protection. The actor appears to be taking on a similar role as the lead of an upcoming, feature-length thriller called The Mother, with a large difference being that she is the one coming to her children’s aid.
Yeoh’s character, Ann, is an immigrant and businesswoman living in Boston whose two sons fall into trouble with a corrupt cop and a local mob, which forces her to revive old instincts in order to rescue them. According to Variety, Mélanie Laurent (who played Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds cast) is writing and directing the film (based on a screenplay by P.G. Cuschieri), which is set to start production in the summer of 2024 with Thunder Road producing.
Star Trek: Section 31 (TBD)
Yeoh has been a part of the Star Trek universe since 2017, when she was cast on creators Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman’s series, Star Trek: Discovery — a prequel to Gene Roddenberry’s original classic TV series that started it all — which is now exclusively available with a Paramount+ subscription. That is also how fans will be able to see her take the lead in Star Trek: Section 31 — the first feature-length installment in the franchise since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond.
She will reprise her recurring role from Discovery as Philippa Georgiou — a commanding officer who, according to the film’s official logline (per Variety), joins a covert group within Starfleet, where she becomes tasked with saving the United Federation of Planets and confronting her own past. Another Variety article detailing upcoming Star Trek TV shows and other related projects mentions that the actor described director Olatunde Osunsammi’s film as “Mission Impossible in space.”
Other Upcoming Michelle Yeoh Projects
There is more to see from Michelle Yeoh outside of the world of cinema.
Blade Runner 2099 (TBD)
Michelle Yeoh’s forthcoming contributions to the sci-fi genre do not just include cinematic projects. The actor is also returning to the small screen for an upcoming Amazon Prime original TV show that will also mark her debut in another widely celebrated franchise: the Blade Runner universe.
In May 2024, it was reported by Variety that the actor was announced as the first major addition to the cast of Blade Runner 2099 — a new series from showrunner Silka Luisa and producer Ridley Scott that is set years after the events of 2017’s Blade Runner 2049. She will star in the role of Olwen, who is described as a replicant who is nearing the end of her lifespan.
Michelle Yeoh has played so many unique character throughout her career, but it looks like the most fascinating roles yet are just starting to come into the fold.