Jane Wu Never did she imagine that her worst portfolio would land her a job that would eventually lead to directing one of Netflix's most famous animated series. But “Blue-eyed samuraiThe director's unconventional path—from fashion designer to housekeeping artist, from veteran Marvel storyboarder to Emmy Award-winning animation director—illustrates the merging of cultures and disciplines that defines her work.
Speaking at the Taiwan Creative Content Forum, Wu traced her three-decade journey in Hollywood animation and filmmaking, showing how the COVID-19 pandemic inadvertently created the conditions for international collaboration that made Blue Eye Samurai possible.
Wu was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States at age eight and a half, speaking no English. After studying fashion and costume design, she opened a comic book store, a decision that changed the trajectory of her career. “What got me into history was reading comics and the great stories that were in those comics,” Wu said. “I was just hooked by the story.”
In the 1990s, Wu landed her first animation job at Sony with what she called “the worst portfolio ever”—a portfolio that only showed that she could draw. Hired for a cleaning job, she initially thought the position would involve cleaning bathrooms. “That’s how much I didn’t know about this industry,” she admitted.
She quickly moved on to character design for the first season of Men in Black, and then moved on to storyboard the second season, although she knew nothing about it. “How difficult can it be?” she remembered thinking. After an initial setback and a summer spent learning the craft, something clicked. “I realized that I had sort of found my voice in storytelling,” Wu said.
Wu's career was accelerated by Disney, where she spent years honing her skills, although she was faced with comedy assignments that didn't suit her action-oriented sensibilities. Her breakthrough came when Joss Whedon contacted her about working on The Avengers after hearing about her from two different sources.
“It's really funny when you go to Disney and you see these big white hunky guys and they're doing the cutest little drawings, the cutest little scenes. You see this little Asian girl and I'm doing all the action, it should be the other way around,” Wu said.
She has worked on several Marvel films includingShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” “I had to, right? Because it was the only Chinese superhero and I had to do it,” she said of her participation in Marvel's first Asian superhero film.
In 2019, Netflix approached Wu about directing an animated series, an offer she initially turned down, leaving animation behind. But when her agent mentioned that it was for adults, Wu changed her mind. “We only do this in the East. We don't do this in the West,” she remembers thinking.
As news of COVID-19 spread from Asia, Wu made a calculated decision. “I instinctively knew we could do animation remotely. You could do live action remotely,” she said. Two weeks after the Blue-Eyed Samurai was hired, the world shut down.
Blue Eyed Samurai, where Wu served as supervising director and producer, was one of the first shows to be filmed 100% remotely, with talent spanning the globe: a stunt team in China, artists in Spain, designers in Japan and animation studios in France. The production operated as a 24-hour studio across multiple time zones.
“When you work remotely, you can work with a wider range of people,” Wu explained. “I really think international cooperation is no longer a scary thing.”
Wu developed Blue Eye Samurai based on a fusion concept inspired by the series' interracial protagonist Mizu. “I describe it as like you go to a fusion restaurant where you can taste where it's coming from. But there's also something, something jazzy, something new and inspiring and tastes so fresh,” she said.
The production deliberately mixes Eastern and Western elements, drawing inspiration from Sergio Leone, as well as Japanese Bunraku puppet movements and martial arts traditions. Wu, who studied Wushu in the US, applied her martial arts skills to the choreography.
She stressed the importance of cultural authenticity while acknowledging that the show is an Asian American interpretation. “It's our interpretation of our culture. Because I truly believe that the global narrative is neither one nor the other. The most interesting stories are the ones that are right in the middle, because in the middle there are many points of view.”
Wu was tasked with teaching French animation studio Blue Spirit Animation how to accurately animate Japanese culture. She traveled to France with a suitcase full of kimonos and swords to demonstrate the correct movements and clothing details.
“This is not a robe,” she explained as she taught the kimono system. “I had to show them the kimono system and the many layers.” She also taught cultural gestures unfamiliar to Westerners, such as the Asian “come hither” sign compared to the Western version.
Working with a Chinese stunt team required a similar cultural translation. “The Bushido system is very, very different from the Chinese martial arts system,” Wu noted, comparing the Japanese swordplay system to baseball, “where there is silence and learning what you are going to do.”
Wu believes COVID-19 inadvertently prepared American audiences for international content by teaching them how to read subtitles. “Netflix said, 'Oh my God, there's no more content because everything is closed. So we have to source content from different countries,” she said, pointing to “The Squid Game” as her breakthrough moment.
The success of Shogun especially touched her. “When I watched it, there was a conference room and there were all Japanese actors and it was a dramatic role and everything was subtitled,” Wu said. “I couldn't believe what I was watching – an American show with all Asian actors.”
Wu rejected concerns about following industry trends, instead focusing on character-driven storytelling. “Don't worry about creating the world. Create the character. Create the story first, because that's what we do,” she advised.
Regarding artificial intelligence in the narrative, Wu expressed cautious optimism. “I think AI can’t understand how we filter the five senses,” she said. “If you let AI do everything, what you get on the other side you won't be able to feel. It may look good, but you won't feel it.”
She also broke with animation conventions by hiring character designer Brian Kesinger, a white artist who initially seemed an unlikely choice for an Asian series. “He said, 'I want to play your characters.' I said, “I don't know.” He says, “Well, just give me a chance.” And he did it,” Wu recalls.
Its key operating principle? “Your pipeline should support the story, not the other way around.”
The second season of Blue-Eyed Samurai is expected to premiere in 2026.
