By the time “Black Widow” hits theaters in July, it will be nearly two full years since Marvel Studios has released a feature film. But after that, over the course of several months, the studio will deliver both “Eternals” and the martial arts action film, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” And it’s that latter film that seems to have been a bit lost in the shuffle lately. However, with a new trailer and some hype from the lead actor, Simu Liu, it’s time to get excited for a Marvel Studios film that seems like it’s unlike any before it.
With the teaser trailer just released, actor Simu Liu spoke to EW to explain what makes “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” a special film. Yes, it’s an origin story, but it’s not the typical origin that we’ve already seen a million times before.
“The most exciting thing about stepping into this character was that his backstory has never been told before,” Liu explained. “We know so many different versions of Batman’s origin story, how his parents were murdered when he was very young. We know Peter Parker, who was bitten by a radioactive spider, and he loses his uncle. Shang-Chi’s story is very much unknown to most of the world, so we had a lot of freedom and creative liberty to make it the way that we wanted to.”
Now, you can’t talk about Shang-Chi without mentioning the character’s history in Marvel Comics. Over the decades, the character was used by Marvel, particularly in the ‘70s and ‘80s, in a way that was not complimentary to Asian culture. The comics leaned hard on gross stereotypes and actually used yellow colors for his skin tone. But according to Liu, this is something everyone in the production was keen to avoid at all costs.
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“When you look at the character of Shang-Chi through the comic books going back to the ’70s and ’80s, the fact that he existed and the fact that he was an Asian character was amazing,” Liu says. “But at the same time, there are aspects of that portrayal of him that maybe could feel a little stereotypical. So when we first started to map out who this character was and what his journey was going to be over the course of this film, we were all very sensitive to not have it go into stereotypical territory.”
Marvel Studios has already tried to sidestep this problematic history when it comes to the characters in “Iron Man 3,” turning The Mandarin from the racist depiction from early comics to, well, Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce. Not the best decision ever by Marvel Studios, but still one made out of a desire to not offend Asian people. Well, now it appears “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is going to redefine The Mandarin in a more interesting way. That is to say, Marvel Studios is making The Mandarin the father to Shang-Chi.
“I think people hear ‘the Mandarin’ and expect a very specific kind of thing, and that may not be the thing they’re getting,” producer Jonathan Schwartz said. “They’re hopefully getting a more complex and layered take on the character than that name would lead you to.”
How will fans react to this change after seeing the film? We’ll have to wait and see when “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” hits theaters on September 3.
