Leaked Footage Shows Simu Liu As Marvel’s Shang-Chi

From Men's Health

• Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings postponed filming last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The film will feature Marvel’s first East Asian lead (played by Simu Liu).

• Footage of Liu and Awkwafina leaked on Twitter this week.

Before Coronavirus delayed production and pushed back the release date of Marvel’s upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, director Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Simu Liu and Awkwafina were filming in Australia.

Video uploaded to Twitter this week reveals the first on-set images of the newest Marvel stars who stand before scaffolding, looking upwards. The set includes motorbikes, a palm tree, and what appears to be taboo scaffolding with a construction sign written in simplified Mandarin Chinese. Wherever they are in the fictional Shang-Chi universe, it’s definitely not Australia.

Principle photography for the film began in March and was quickly shut down. The first photos of the Marvel production feature a helicopter in front of blue screen. So far, we know almost nothing about the plot of the film, just the way Marvel producers like it. Here's what we do know about the film, though:

The Shang-Chi release date is moving back

Earlier this month, it was announced that Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings would be pushed back from February 12, 2021 to May 7, 2021. Releasing on February 12 instead: Eternals, which itself was bumped back to make room for Black Widow, which was bumped back because … Coronavirus.

Shang-Chi’s director knows a few Marvel stars.

Destin Daniel Cretton is officially directing Shang-Chi, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cretton has previously worked with Captain Marvel star Brie Larson, directing her in the 2013 indie flick Short Term 12, the 2017 drama The Glass Castle, and 2019's Just Mercy, which also starred Black Panther villain Michael B. Jordan.

Shang-Chi will be the first East Asian lead in a Marvel Studios movie.

While the title of “first Asian Marvel movie superhero” technically goes to Lewis Tan for his performance as Shatterstar in Deadpool 2, that movie was part of 20^th Century Fox’s stable of movies and not the official MCU. On the small screen, we’ve also had Colleen Wing, played by Jessica Henwick in Netflix shows Iron Fist, Luke Cage and The Defenders. But Shang-Chi will mark the first time in Marvel history that an Asian character is the big screen lead.

The character is a “master of kung fu.”

Shang-Chi was originally created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin in 1972 as Marvel’s answer to the Kung Fu television show. They were unable to buy the rights to that series, so instead they acquired the character of pulp villain Fu Manchu, and introduced Shang-Chi as his son. Trained from birth as a master of martial arts, Shang-Chi has teamed up in the comics with some of Marvel’s greatest heroes, including Captain America and Iron Man.

The film’s writer is a comic book movie expert.

The movie will be penned by Chinese-American screenwriter Dave Callaham, who has excellent superhero credentials. He also wrote the screenplay for upcoming DC sequel Wonder Woman 1984 and has reportedly been hired to work on a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Shang-Chi will be a part of Marvel’s diverse next phase.

As the previous Marvel phase came to an end in the highly anticipated Avengers: Endgame last April, we're onto a new phase. Following the recent successes of Black Panther and Captain Marvel, we can expect a more diverse line-up of heroes in Marvel's next cycle of movies; in addition to Shang-Chi, Marvel will also feature its first ever gay superhero in The Eternals.

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