Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga is based on the true story of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, but how accurate it is to the group’s real story is not easy to discern. Set during the early 1990s in New York, the Hulu original tells a fictionalized version of the Wu-Tang Clan’s history. Outside of the group’s musical origins together, Wu-Tang: An American Saga also delves into the nine original Wu-Tang members’ early lives and their experiences living in New York during the 1990s crack cocaine epidemic.
Co-created by one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s founding members, RZA, with fellow Wu-Tang member Method Man - played by David “Dave East” Brewster on the show - having a producer credit, the Hulu original TV show appears to have an air of authenticity surrounding its storytelling. However, when adapting a true story to the screen, changes will inevitably occur to make the story better fit the format. When it comes to Wu-Tang: An American Saga, telling the fiction from the facts can be harder than it seems.
Wu-Tang: An American Story Is A Dramatized Series (Based On A Real Group)
Although Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga is telling a story based on real events and people, it is ultimately a dramatized series. Of course, the Wu-Tang Clan and the people important to their journey are real. Since Wu-Tang: An American Saga is not a documentary, but rather a TV series on a popular streaming service, however, not everything is completely true-to-life.
Wu-Tang: An American Saga may be based on reality, but the TV show does have an air of fiction - such as the inclusion of tongue-in-cheek animated sequences, for example - to filter the real story through. As such, answering the question of how accurate Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga is may be more complicated than it appears on the surface. Ultimately, it is rooted in the truth of the Wu-Tang Clan, but adds fictionalized elements for entertainment purposes.
How Accurate The Wu-Tang Clan Think Wu-Tang: An American Story Is
Wu-Tang: An American Saga’s creators are Alex Tse and one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s founding members, RZA, who is portrayed by Ashton Sanders on the show. They maintain that the Hulu series is “spiritually...very truthful and accurate” to the real Wu-Tang Clan story (via USA Today). The two creators claim they have taken real events and interpreted them for TV, meaning there is some truth and some fiction. They have categorized the Hulu original project as “historical fiction,” which accounts for the dramatized elements of Wu-Tang: An American Saga, as well as vouching for a level of legitimacy.
Not only do the creators maintain that Wu-Tang: An American Saga is “spiritually true,” but RZA even claims that, in some ways, it is more accurate than a documentary, explaining, “The show touches on things that maybe we were too shy to say in front of the camera... [Wu-Tang: An American Saga] opens up more about the Wu that you can’t find in the [Showtime] documentary.” Regardless of whether Wu-Tang: An American Saga is completely true, the fictional format might have helped tell a more accurate Wu-Tang story, making the TV show unique among media based on true events.