Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings stars Simu Liu as Marvel Studio’s first Asian superhero. It comes exclusively to theaters September 3. Here’s the first trailer.
Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings stars Simu Liu (Blood and Water) as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. The film also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu and Ronny Chieng.
Additionally, Benedict Wong reprises his MCU role of Wong, while Abomination also appears in the film after first appearing in The Incredible Hulk (2008). He’s also in the trailer.
The director is Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy), the writers are David Callaham (AntMan), Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham (Just Mercy). Callaham is also writing the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel.
Producers are Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz and Executive Producers Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and Charles Newirth.
On April 19, 2021, Liu’s birthday, he shared the first teaser poster for the film.
The teaser appeared the next day.
It appears Marvel is looking to follow the example set by Ryan Coogler with 2018’s blockbuster Black Panther, by ensuring that a film about an Asian protagonist and characters was in the hands of Asian-American writers and filmmakers. This is the first Asian-led Marvel film, with proven talent of Chinese, Japanese, and Koren-American backgrounds.
Created by writer Steve Englehart and writer/artist Jim Starlin in the 1970s, Shang-Chi is a Chinese criminal mastermind’s son who became a hero when he learned the truth about his upbringing, and devoted his life and talents to taking down his father’s criminal empire. In comic lore, he’s teamed up with other superhero groups, including the Heroes for Hire, Marvel Knights, X-Men, and the Avengers.
While in pre-production Starlin said: “There’s more communication now between the comicbook people and the movie people. I can’t say much more than that at this point, but there’s more communication on Shang-Chi than there was on Thanos.”
Development on a Shang-Chi film began in the 1980s when Stan Lee spoke with Brandon Lee about starring in a film. Brandon’s father Bruce Lee was the visual inspiration for the character.
Principal photography began in February 2020, shooting at the former Fox Studios Australia in Sydney and on location throughout the state of New South Wales, under the working title Steamboat. The film reportedly features several martial arts styles. Producer Jonathan Schwartz said “there is a meaning for each fighting style in the film, and they helped to tell the story visually.”
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David Raiklen wrote, directed and scored his first film at age 9. He began studying keyboard and composing at age 5. He attended, then taught at UCLA, USC and CalArts. Among his teachers are John Williams and Mel Powel.
He has worked for Fox, Disney and Sprint. David has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2004 American Music Center Award. Dr. Raiklen has composed music and sound design for theater (Death and the Maiden), dance (Russian Ballet), television (Sing Me a Story), cell phone (Spacey Movie), museums (Museum of Tolerance), concert (Violin Sonata ), and film (Appalachian Trail).
His compositions have been performed at the Hollywood Bowl and the first Disney Hall. David Raiken is also host of a successful radio program, Classical Fan Club.
