Lucy Liu and Eloise Singer are preparing to take “The Pirate Queen: No Safe Waters,” their immersive experience about Chinese pirate leader Cheng Shih, on an international tour next year, Singer tells Variety. The pair have also co-written a graphic novel and are developing a new game. The news comes as Singer, the project’s writer and director, joins the 2026 BAFTA Breakthrough U.K. cohort.
The franchise is built around a retelling of the stories about real life character Cheng Shih, who was a powerful female pirate in the South China Sea at the beginning of the 18th century. It follows the original 2024 VR version of “The Pirate Queen,” which earned an Emmy nomination. Liu says Cheng Shih was intelligent and strategically brilliant, and won respect through negotiation and leadership “in a world designed to exclude women entirely.” In Liu’s view, the pirate leader defies nearly every stereotype historically placed on Asian women in storytelling.
Stories like hers remind us that history has always contained powerful, complex women – they were never centered in mainstream narratives,” Liu tells Variety. Audiences stand among storms and fleets as dragons move beneath their feet. Liu does not appear on screen.
She says voice carries a different kind of responsibility in immersive work, guiding atmosphere and movement at the same time. Singer has spent a decade on “The Pirate Queen,” the last three years of it with Liu, and says the pair have co-written a graphic novel, are preparing the international tour and are developing a new game. She’s thrown her heart and soul into this alongside me, and getting to build this world together has been one of the most special parts of the journey,” she says.
I’m always drawn to work that challenges convention and creates space for voices and histories that haven’t been fully explored, and Cheng Shih’s story deserves that kind of scale.” BAFTA named Singer to this year’s Breakthrough program, its Netflix-supported initiative for emerging screen talent, on Nov. 4. She was selected in the games category for “No Safe Waters.” “It’s still a bit of a pinch-me moment. It’s something I’ve aspired to for such a long time, so to be selected is a little surreal, and to have BAFTA and Netflix recognize what we’ve created with ‘The Pirate Queen’ is incredibly special,” Singer tells Variety.
We started with a story we really believed in and wanted to bring it to life in a completely different way, something audiences could truly step inside and experience.” A friend who went through the program before her told her to make the most of every opportunity. I’m really looking forward to meeting other filmmakers and finding ways to take over the world together,” she says. Singer says this year is the first time she has really felt a scalable and sustainable future for immersive storytelling.
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