With the debut of the teaser trailer for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” on Monday, Marvel Studios has lastly pulled again the curtain on the first main superhero film backed by an American studio to star a predominantly Asian solid. Starring Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”), directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (“Just Cause”) and written by David Callaham (“Wonder Woman 1984”), the movie additional expands the scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe whereas breaking obscenely overdue floor for Asian illustration on a blockbuster scale.
Not solely was it gratifying to lastly see Liu in motion as Shang-Chi, the teaser additionally revealed some tantalizing new particulars about the film. Here’s what we’ve discovered.
Screengrab courtesy of Marvel Studios
Who is Shang-Chi?
Marvel Comics first launched Shang-Chi in 1972 as a method to capitalize on the rising reputation of the standard TV present “Kung Fu” (which, coincidentally, was simply rebooted as a TV sequence on the CW with a Chinese American lady, performed by Olivia Liang, as its central hero).
Eventually, he turns into a grasp of the martial artwork of kung fu, and the teaser makes clear that Shang-Chi spent his childhood brutally coaching to attain that objective — solely to depart all of it behind for a lifetime of anonymity in San Francisco, the place he befriends fellow resort valet, Katy (Awkwafina), the requisite common one that will get unwittingly pulled into the world of superheroes.
In the comics, the most important arc of Shang-Chi’s origin story is the discovery that his father is a villain who must be defeated — based mostly on the teaser, it seems “Shang-Chi” will take the same strategy. Several different particulars, nonetheless, have been modified. Including…
Screengrab courtesy of Marvel Studios
Who is Shang-Chi’s father?
In the comics, Shang-Chi was initially the secret son of the villain Dr. Fu Manchu. Eventually, Marvel misplaced the rights to the Fu Manchu character, which is simply as properly, since that character has fallen into disrepute resulting from its apparent and egregious racist stereotyping.
So as an alternative, Shang-Chi’s father has been reconceived as a personality named Wenwu, however that isn’t his solely title. When Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige first introduced in 2019 that legendary Hong Kong actor Tony Leung was enjoying the character, he stated Leung could be “the real Mandarin.”
If that sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of Marvel Studios first launched the Mandarin in 2013’s “Iron Man 3.” In that film, to get round the undeniable fact that in the comics, the Mandarin was primarily a model of Fu Manchu — with all the similar racist tropes — they made the character into one thing of a joke, performed by Ben Kingsley as an actor employed to embody numerous racist tropes of terrorist boogeymen all through trendy historical past.
Whether “Shang-Chi” references that historical past is unclear, however we do know that as Wenwu, Leung is the movie’s most important Big Bad — the head of the Ten Rings group that his son fled to San Francisco to flee.
Screengrab courtesy of Marvel Studios
What are the Ten Rings?
In the comics, the rings imbue whoever wears them on every hand with some fairly superior powers, together with the capacity to regulate individuals’s minds, rob a room of all mild inside it, freeze any object stable, and discharge highly effective bolds of electrical energy. The rings maintain these powers due to a sequence of gems embedded inside them.
If this sounds awfully just like Thanos’ infinity stones, it appears Marvel Studios agrees, as a result of the rings have been reconceived as armbands which might be typically worn as bracelets. Although they glow with some sort of blue power, and clearly present whoever wears them with tremendous-energy, it’s nonetheless unclear whether or not these bands will correspond with the similar skills the rings maintain in the comics. But the transient shot of Shang-Chi and Katy standing inside a room crammed with gradual-movement water means that not less than one in all them will.
Screengrab courtesy of Marvel Studios
Who are the different characters?
Other than Shang-Chi, Katy, and Wenwu, the teaser focuses on three different characters: Death Dealer, one in all Shang-Chi’s most important villains, has been reconceived considerably as the brutal taskmaster behind Shang-Chi’s coaching as a toddler. (Who performs Death Dealer stays unclear, what with the masks and all.) Similarly, Shang-Chi’s sister, who stayed behind after Shang-Chi left, has been renamed Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). And Florian Munteanu, who performed Viktor Drago in “Creed II,” is enjoying Razor Fist, so-named as a result of he has, properly, blades for fists.
Screengrab courtesy of Marvel Studios
How does this all match inside the MCU?
The a number of photographs of battles in what seems to be like historic China implies that this story stretches again centuries, if not millennia, which additionally raises the query: Where had been Shang-Chi, Wenwu, and the Ten Rings group throughout the Infinity Saga? Yes, the Ten Rings had been answerable for kidnapping Tony Stark approach again in 2008’s “Iron Man,” however in the comics, Shang-Chi was absolutely built-in into the bigger Marvel tales, repeatedly interacting with Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Black Widow. It will probably be fascinating to see how “Shang-Chi” accounts for why he and his world have remained so quiet inside the MCU till now.
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is scheduled to open in theaters on Sept. three.
