On my Zoom screen, when director Jon M. Chu moved slightly to the side, I noticed that propped against the wall behind him was a set of framed magazine covers: the cast of Crazy Rich Asians on the cover of Entertainment Weekly , Constance Wu on the cover of Time and Henry Golding on the cover of GQ .

Chu started showing me other mementoes on his desk: a mahjong tile from one of the most climactic scenes in Crazy Rich Asians, and a strip of film containing the first 24 frames of his first feature film, 2008s Step Up 2: The Streets.

These things just remind me of where Ive come from and where Im headed, he said. Someone told me once: No ones gonna buy you a trophy you gotta keep your own trophies.

The reminders arent just for himself.

To me, the permanence of that, the permanence of putting her on the cover of Time, or him on the cover of GQ, or Awkwafina on SNL , giving her a Golden Globe , you cant unsee that, Chu said. Once you know someone can do it, its there forever.

That significance and visibility also guided him in his next movie, the long-awaited adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegra Hudes Tony-winning musical, which follows bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) and his friends and neighbors in New York Citys Washington Heights during a summer heat wave, as they reflect on their dreams and ambitions.

Soon after the musical opened on Broadway in 2008, Hollywood came calling, but for years, the movie adaptation shuffled between different studios, producers and directors. At long last, it will premiere in theaters and on HBO Max on June 11, a year after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its release date.

Like the release of Crazy Rich Asians, the first Hollywood studio movie in 25 years with a majority Asian cast, In the Heights is a long overdue landmark. It puts Latinx characters at the center of their own story in a major Hollywood movie. For years, Latinx moviegoers have had the highest per capita attendance of any ethnic group , while making up just 4.5% of speaking characters in the top-grossing movies at the box office.

Before Crazy Rich Asians came out in 2018, Chu and the books author Kevin Kwan had considered a big, enticing offer from Netflix . But recognizing the importance of giving Asian Americans a rare chance to see themselves at the center of a major movie on a giant screen, they turned it down and went with a theatrical release from Warner Bros. It was one of many lessons Chu took into making In the Heights.

At one point last year, he and Miranda considered putting the movie on streaming or on-demand the day of its would-be theatrical release, in order to give this to the audience at home, when they would need the joy, Chu recalled.