2010s
In 2010, Ip Man 2 was released. Similar to the first film, it was directed by Wilson Yip. In August 2011, while Yen was on a vacation with his family in the United States, he reportedly received an invitation by producer Avi Lerner to star in The Expendables 2. It was stated that Yen was considering the offer, had many films at hand, and would wait until deciding whether the script appealed to him. Later on, Yen revealed to the Hong Kong media that he had rejected the role. In 2011, Yen revealed that he was venturing into other genres of films and had taken up two comedy roles in a row, in All's Well, Ends Well 2011 and All's Well, Ends Well 2012, and would be working with Carina Lau in the former and Sandra Ng in the latter. Both films were critical and box-office successes.
Yen took a six-month break in the second half of 2011 after the filming of The Monkey King, where he portrayed the title character and main protagonist Sun Wukong, replacing Li once again, in which the film was released during the Chinese New Year period in January 2014, he explained that he wanted to spend more time with his family and be with his children more as they grew up. In 2012, Yen returned to the movie industry and commenced the filming of Special ID, in which he played the main lead, an undercover cop, and also took on the role of action choreographer. In 2013, it was reported that Yen would be playing the lead role for Iceman, a sci-fi action film dealing with time travel and which was filmed in 3D. Yen confirmed that MMA would be used in both of the aforementioned films.
In February 2013, the Weinstein Company confirmed that it had purchased the rights to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny and contacted Yen to play the male lead. In March 2013, Hong Kong magazines surfaced photos of Harvey and Bob Weinstein traveling to Hong Kong to meet with Yen and persuade him to accept the offer. It was reported that Yen was considering the role and quoted as saying, "The first is that my schedule this year is very packed. The second is that the first film is already such a classic. I am afraid of the pressure, that the original cannot be surpassed." In May 2013, during the annual Cannes Film Festival, the Weinstein Company announced that Yen would play the lead role of Silent Wolf in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, alongside leading female action star Michelle Yeoh reprising her role as Yu Shu Lien, and with director Yuen Woo-ping, Yen's mentor. It was revealed that the movie would be filmed in both English and Mandarin to appeal to the international market. It was revealed during the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II press conference that the Weinstein Company had obtained rights to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, was planning a remake and was negotiating with Yen, George Clooney, and Zhang Ziyi to star in the film. Yen declined the offer due to scheduling conflicts for the filming of Ip Man 3. Yen earned HK$220 million (US$28.4 million) from four films and six advertisements in 2013.
In late March 2015, Ip Man 3 was announced. Yen reprised his role as the titular character Ip Man, Bruce Lee's wing chun master. Retired boxer and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was confirmed to join the cast. Yen mentioned that he was a big fan of Tyson, watched many of his professional boxing bouts, and was excited to work with him. Tyson stated during a press conference that he was a huge fan of Yen and has watched Ip Man and Ip Man 2 more than three times each and was honored to be invited for the final installment of the trilogy. Principal photography for Ip Man 3 began on 25 March 2015, and the finished film was released in December 2015 in parts of Asia and around the world in early 2016 to generally favorable reviews.
In 2016, Yen co-starred in the Star Wars anthology film Rogue One as Chirrut Îmwe, the Zatoichi-like blind transient warrior. On 12 February 2016, it was confirmed that Yen would once again replace Li for the third time as Xiang in the upcoming action film XXX: Return of Xander Cage (after Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen in 2010 and The Monkey King in 2014). For the promotion of XXX: Return of Xander Cage, Paramount focused marketing efforts on Yen in China and most parts of Asia, placing him at the front of the film posters ahead of Vin Diesel, and shared clips and reviews of Yen's performance in the movie on the popular Chinese social media site Weibo. Paramount's efforts worked very well in China. The film was number one in its opening weekend with $61.9 million, and crossed the $100 million mark in just six days with $22.2m coming from Valentine's Day alone after rave reviews praising Yen's performance swept through Chinese social media, driving moviegoers to the cinema. Yen's performance in both Rogue One and XXX: Return of Xander Cage received positive responses from critics and general audiences. For XXX: Return of Xander Cage, media outlets praised Yen's performance. In the case of Rogue One, Yen's performance was applauded by audiences worldwide. In a poll on the Star Wars webpage, in which more 40,000 people voted, Yen's character Chirrut Îmwe was voted as audiences' favorite Rogue One character.
While Yen was filming XXX: Return of Xander Cage in Canada, he received offers from Hollywood studios and directors. At the same time, Hong Kong director Wong Jing personally flew to Canada to invite Yen to star in his film Chasing the Dragon, a remake of the film To Be Number One. Yen eventually accepted the offer and played a non-traditional role of a villain with limited fighting scenes and the opportunity to work alongside Andy Lau. In September 2017, Chasing the Dragon was released with positive reviews from critics, citing Yen's versatility as an actor and his portrayal of Ng Sek Ho, the main character of the film. Chasing the Dragon was a hit with audiences in most parts of Asia. In Hong Kong, Chasing the Dragon is ranked as one of the top 5 Hong Kong films in 2017.
In 2017, Yen received a call from Li and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma about a potential collaboration on a short martial arts film known as Gong Shou Dao – to promote a new form of tai chi as an Olympic sport in the future. Yen was on holiday with his wife to celebrate their anniversary, but cancelled his plans to take part in the film. Yen declined any salary for this participation for GSD as he stated that "friendship is not measured by money" and that he hopes his participation can help promote Chinese martial arts to worldwide audiences. In return, Li and Ma surprised Yen and his wife Cissy, by helping to celebrate their wedding anniversary on the set. The full GSD 20 minutes short film was released on 11 November – China's Singles' Day, debuting on Youku and Li's official Facebook page, garnering a total of more than 100 million views worldwide. Netizens in China praised Yen's speed and technique in the film, with most audiences (over 190,000) voting Yen as the highlight of the short film. In late 2017, Yen began filming Big Brother, a mixed martial arts film where Yen plays a high school teacher with unconventional methods and a dark past.
In 2017, a live-action film adaption of the video game Sleeping Dogs was announced, with Yen playing the lead character Wei Shen. In February 2018, Yen confirmed the continued production of the film through social media. In 2019, Yen reprised his role as Ip Man in Ip Man 4: The Finale. During the Hong Kong protests of that year, protesters urged a boycott of the film, citing the pro-Beijing stances of Yen, co-star Danny Chan, and producer Raymond Wong. The film was a box office success, grossing over three times its budget of $52 million and becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time in Malaysia as well as the third-highest-grossing Chinese film in North America in five years.
