The Marvel Cinematic Universe is launching its first movie centered around an Asian superhero: Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu!
The report comes from Deadline, who state that Shang-Chi is now being fast-tracked through development at Marvel Studios. Dave Callaham, an Asian-American screenwriter, has been tapped to handle the script; reports are that an Asian or Asian-American director is being sought for the project.
Apparently, insiders say that Marvel is looking to do for Asian / Asian-American culture what it did for African / African-American culture with the unprecedented success of Black Panther in 2018.
Callaham has strong credentials in the superhero and franchise-building realms and his own experiences as a Chinese-American will inform the Shang-Chi movie mythology, insiders confirmed. His recent work includes co-writing with Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns the upcoming DC Warner Bros sequel Wonder Woman 1984, and he is writing Sony’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel.
In the comics, Shang-Chi has been a secret agent, an adventurer, and has joined teams like the Heroes for Hire and recently The Avengers. Though not superpowered, per se, Shang-Chi is unparalleled in his combat abilities, and can do things most humans cannot, through his mastery of chi (a skill most recently seen in Marvel’s Iron Fist).
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