Marvel is digging deeper into its catalog for its Phase 4 slate. We already knew about The Eternals becoming a priority for the studio, but they’re also looking back to bronze age martial arts comics sensation Shang-Chi, who headlined a comic known as Master Of Kung Fu, to launch a brand new franchise.
In the original comics, Shang-Chi was the son of none other than Fu Manchu, that relic of a less enlightened era of storytelling. When the young son learns of his father’s true nature, he sets out into the world to right wrongs. Deadline broke the news, and they report that “Marvel is already looking at a number of Asian and Asian-American directors” with the intent that Shang-Chi will be the Asian-American equivalent of Black Panther, which was not only an excellent film in its own right, but had signficant cultural implications as the most prominent black superhero to headline a movie, with a black director at the helm.
Dave Callaham, who has worked on The Expendables franchise, Warner Bros’ inaugural Godzilla feature, and upcoming superhero fare like Wonder Woman 1984 and the untitled sequel to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, is writing the screenplay. Marvel routinely pays lip service to the idea that certain films aren’t meant to be superhero movies. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was pitched as a political thriller, and certainly both Guardians Of The Galaxy movies lean heavily into their weird space opera/comedy vibe. Would Marvel dare to make a straightforward modern martial arts movie rather than a nine-figure extravaganza?
While we are obviously far too early in the process for casting to even be considered, if Lewis Tan (Deadpool 2, Into The Badlands, the upcoming Wu Assassins, and one of the only good things about the first season of Iron Fist) doesn’t at least get a serious look for the lead role, something isn’t right. Similarly, we’re nowhere near discussing release dates, but there are no shortage of dates on the superhero movie calendar between 2020 and 2021. Several of those would suit Shang-Chi just fine.
We’ll update this as more information becomes available.