You don’t say no to Mama, especially when she’s Michelle Yeoh.

In her first leading role since winning the Best Actress Oscar for her turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians) stars as badass Mama Sun in the upcoming slick Asian American crime drama The Brothers Sun. Created by Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu, the series explores “what it means to be a son, what it means to be a brother, and also what it means to try and keep a family together,” said Falchuk. “We do an extreme version of it because they’re a crime family and there are people shooting at them and trying to kill them. But the conflicts they’re having — the problems they’re having internally, the emotional problems — are very, very universal.”

You can also expect plenty of mouthwatering food that will leave you hungry — or eager to hop in the kitchen with the Sun family. “You can’t tell an Asian story without food being involved because, especially with family, there’s just no way to separate the two,” said Wu. “[Eating] really is such an integral part of the family unit that it had to be there, because otherwise it would be not truthful.” Food stylist Melissa McCorley, who is always looking for projects where food is “more than just a prop,” based a good portion of the meals around traditional Chinese dishes, either family style at home or the formal gourmet type meal.

Grab a plate and join the The Brothers Sun family. Learn everything you need to know about the series below.

What is The Brothers Sun about?

The action-packed family drama with a twisted sense of humor kicks off when the head of a powerful Taiwanese triad is shot by a mysterious assassin. His eldest son, legendary killer Charles “Chairleg” Sun (Justin Chien) heads to the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles to protect his mother, Eileen Sun (Yeoh), and his naive younger brother, Bruce (Sam Song Li) — who’s been completely sheltered from the truth about their family until now. But as Taipei’s deadliest societies and a new rising faction go head-to-head for dominance, Charles, Bruce, and Mama Sun must heal the wounds caused by their separation — and figure out what brotherhood and family truly mean before one of their countless enemies kills them all. 

Kevin Tancharoen, who directed five out of the eight episodes of the series, said that he, Falchuk, and Wu knew that The Brothers Sun would live and die based on the relationship of the Sun family. “At the end of the day, no matter who you are, you have a family and you are not immune to the insecurity that comes from having a family that might be a little messed up,” Tancharoen said. “But what also comes with those heightened experiences is a deep love, a kind of love that is unbreakable.”

Where can I watch the The Brothers Sun trailer?

You can watch the action-packed trailer up top. Yeoh particularly loves how the series has “so much humor in it,” she said. Even the fight sequences — which can get pretty violent — have “a little bit of a wink to them,” said Falchuk. “Sometimes, two or three winks.”

That blend of action and humor hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Brothers Sun has been nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Comedy Programming.

Can I see photos of the cast at the premiere?

Yes. See them cozy up on the carpet above.

Who is in The Brothers Sun cast?

In addition to Yeoh, Chien, and Li, the series also stars Highdee Kuan as Alexis Kong, a driven and ambitious assistant district attorney with a strong sense of justice and work ethic; Joon Lee as TK Lee, an aspiring gangster and Bruce’s best friend since childhood; and Johnny Kou (Bitter Sweet, Fighting Men of China) as Big Sun, Charles and Bruce’s father.

Also joining the cast in recurring roles are Alice Hewkin (The Crown, Sex Education), Jon Xue Zhang (Marvel’s Eternals, The Gentleman), Jenny Yang (Busy Tonight with Busy Philipps), Madison Hu (The Boogeyman, Bizaardvark), and Rodney To (Easter Sunday, Parks & Recreation).

Who is Byron Wu?

Byron Wu is the co-creator of The Brothers Sun with Brad Falchuk. He also writes and executive produces the show. Coming up in the industry, Wu was an assistant for Mikkel Bondesen, who is also an executive producer on The Brothers Sun. And when Wu attended the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles, Bondesen became the president of Falchuk’s Teley-Vision production company for Netflix. 

Bondesen was Wu’s only connection in the industry, and Wu sent him the idea and script for the show. He was hoping Bondesen would help get him representation, but Bondesen sent the script to Falchuk instead. “Before I knew it, I was on a Zoom with Brad Falchuk, and he was like, ‘I want to come on as the co-creator and showrunner for your show,’ ” he said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, oh my God.’ ” From the start, Falchuk wanted to set up a mentor-mentee relationship with Wu. “It’s one of those great Hollywood stories that only happens to people who are very, very talented and very, very cool,” Falchuk said of Wu. He admired the “spark of something” in Wu’s writing and thought they would have fun working together. 

Who are the writers of The Brothers Sun?

All eight episodes of The Brothers Sun were written by an all-Asian writers’ room (plus Falchuk) — with some Taiwanese slang contributed by the all-Asian cast. “That was really special for us, to have them curse in a very culturally specific way that they knew,” said Wu. Alongside Wu and Falchuk, the writers include Jason Ning, Amy Wang, Ally Seibert, SJ Son, Andrew Law, Amy Wang, and Justin Calen-Chenn.

The specificity of telling a story about a Taiwanese-American immigrant family was a guiding light for the series, and the creatives hoped that the grounded experience would resonate with a broader audience. “We also made that effort to not just find Chinese American writers or Taiwanese American writers, but we have Korean American writers, we have writers who were adopted from an early age,” said Wu. “It was really important for us to be able to speak to not just a Taiwanese American or Chinese American experience, but [to] an Asian American experience, that everyone in the room could feel the same feelings and then have that same sense of understanding.”

Where are The Brothers Sun filming locations?

The love for the SGV is real in The Brothers Sun. When Mama Sun and Bruce fled Taiwan, they made their new home base in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. And actually, Bruce’s background isn’t too far off from Sam Song Li’s in real life. “I was also raised by a single mom in the 626 in San Gabriel,” he said. When Wu moved out to Los Angeles, his place was in Hacienda Heights in San Gabriel. One of his most striking memories was how few people knew about the area and how vibrant of a community it is. “When I was trying to think of where to have this family [live], it was like, ‘Of course, they live in the San Gabriel Valley,’ ” he said. 

Many Chinese immigrants live in the area, and the team was very adamant about filming there to capture its authenticity and familiarity. “We shot an enormous amount of stuff there, and it’s impossible to fake that,” said Falchuk. “The way there are parts of LA that you don’t usually see — like in the movies like Jackie Brown — we want to do the same kind of thing for San Gabriel Valley.” The production team really wanted to make the backdrops and landmarks of the SGV a character in the series, just as much as Albuquerque was in Breaking Bad. “It’s a sense of place,” said Falchuk. “You can feel it, you can smell it, you can feel the heat.” Wu wanted the details of the Suns’ home to be specific to the place, too. “Byron would be like, ‘We have that pad, we have that calendar,” Falchuk said. Wu knew it felt authentic when Madison Hu walked into the Sun house and said, ‘Oh, my god. This is just like my parents’ house.’ ”

Tancharoen, who also grew up around the SGV, wanted to romanticize its beige and tan architecture and devotion to strip malls, which are home to many of the locations in the series like Kee Wah Bakery and Golden Soup Restaurant. “I have so much comfort in strip malls,” he said. The SGV’s DNA is so ingrained in The Brothers Sun that they actually modelled  the show’s logo on a typical strip mall sign. “It’s just this really kind of old school strip mall sign that we’re all used to [seeing when we] get really good Chinese food.” 

Can I watch a clip from the series right now?

You sure can! Check out Yeoh arriving to her standing mahjong game with some of the SGV’s in-the-know aunties above. It’s quite the “complex network of relationships, favors, and debts.”

Are the actors really speaking Mandarin in The Brothers Sun?

Yes. There are actors speaking English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean — and a lot of Taiwanese curse words. “Sorry!” said Wu. Chien, Yang, Xhang and Yeoh (who also speaks Cantonese) all speak Mandarin fluently. Yeoh was instrumental in fact-checking the words used in the series with producer David Fu. When Yeoh first met with Wu and Falchuk to discuss the show, she had many questions about the language, asking, “Is this the exact word? I don’t know if that’s the exact word. Let’s change that. Let’s look at that.”

They were all united in crafting a show that “represented the specific culture we were in and the cultures we were trying to tell stories about,” said Falchuk. “So, in order to do that, you need to hear the language,” he said. Writer Justin Calen-Chenn, in particular, would come up with poetic phrases that weren’t exact translations, but poetic versions that anyone speaking Mandarin would understand. They also wanted the languages to swing back and forth because that’s how a lot of these families actually operate. A lot of the writers would even call their moms to clarify specific phrases in Mandarin. 

Can I see some photos from The Brothers Sun?

Yup, swipe away right here.

Why is Charles obsessed with churros in The Brothers Sun ?

Despite his legendary status as his father’s assassin, Charles is a “closeted baker,” as Chien calls him, who would rather spend time perfecting his churro recipe while watching The Great British Baking Show than carrying out a hit. After he stumbles upon the best churros in the SGV at a stand at Bruce’s college, Charles becomes obsessed with churros above all baked goods because, to Wu and Falchuk, they “knock everybody’s socks off,” said Falchuk. They were so eager to make viewers desperate for a churro after watching that they even carefully designed the sound of the crunch when Charles takes his first bite. The series, and Charles’ story in particular, combines McSorley’s favorite on-screen genre: action with food porn.

And what about that pineapple cake?

Churros aren’t the only baked good that Charles perfects in The Brothers Sun. After his childhood friend Alexis rescues him from the bloodbath at Ka Spa, he makes her a tray of pineapple cakes at her apartment in Episode 5. McSorley’s take on the traditional Chinese pastry was so good that it made Tancharoen a dessert convert. “I’m not a big sweets person, but when Melissa made those pineapple cakes… I’m now kind of a sweets person,” he said. Wu similarly would go up to McSorley after a take with his hand out, asking for whatever she’d made for the day. And the pineapple cakes especially “were so good!” said Wu. “I miss Melissa.” 

McSorley had previously worked with Falchuk on The Politician and with Tancharoen on The Book of Boba Fett. It was after her first meeting with Wu, where they discussed the food in each scene down to the tiniest detail, that she knew she would be in good hands on The Brothers Sun. “The most exciting part to me, as an Asian-American, was the opportunity to help depict some of the nuances of our cultural experience that we’ve not seen on television before,” says McSorley.

Can I see some behind the scenes photos from The Brothers Sun?

Totally. Check them out above.

What is The Brothers Sun release date?

The Brothers Sun is out now.

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The Brothers Sun TrailerStarring Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien, and Sam Song Li