Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set to hit theaters on February 12, 2021. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige made the announcement at San Diego Comic-Con.
Kim’s Convenience star Simu Liu is playing the titular character. Awkwafina and Tony Leung are also on board, with the latter playing the Mandarin.
Marvel Studios’ Shang Chi film is set to introduce its first Asian lead protagonist and Destin Creston has been hired to helm the upcoming film after the company reportedly searched for an Asian or Asian-American filmmaker to introduce the hero in a project that explores Asian and Asian American themes. Chinese-American writer Dave Callaham is set to pen the screenplay for the Shang Chi film.
Just announced in Hall H at #SDCC, Marvel Studios’ SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS, with Simu Liu, Awkwafina and Tony Leung, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. In theaters February 12, 2021. pic.twitter.com/VXaqJ5uN6B
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) July 21, 2019
In the comics, Shang-Chi is a skilled martial artist who was raised and trained by his father Fu Manchu, a Chinese crimelord and immortal sorcerer who repeatedly attempted to conquer the world, in an isolated compound located in China. When Shang-Chi was finally allowed to venture into the outside world in order to do his father’s bidding, he learned about his father’s evil ways and faked his own death before embarking on a mission to take down Fu Manchu’s criminal empire.
Introduced in Special Marvel Edition #15 in December 197, the script will reportedly modernize the source material in order to avoid the character stereotypes of the time.
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