In surprising news and days ahead of schedule, Marvel dropped the first trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings this week, unveiling its maiden Asian superhero – titular crime-fighter Simu Liu. The two-minute clip sees Liu’s Shang-Chi confront his past and battle the villainous Ten Rings organisation, whose name audiences first heard in the Iron Man movie over a decade ago, reported Huffington Post.
The hero is living a relatively low-key existence in San Francisco alongside his friend Katy (Awkwafina). His father, Wenwu, played by legendary Hong Kong star Tony Leung, had trained him as a child against some of the world’s most dangerous people. Soon enough, he comes calling after a 10-year absence.
The high-octane action-packed sequences are nothing like we have seen in the past Marvel films. “The most exciting thing about stepping into this character was that his backstory has never been told before,” Liu said about the role. “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.”
Liu also revealed the film’s poster on the occasion of his birthday on Monday but had no idea Marvel was about to drop the trailer without any prior warning. The actor petitioned to play an Asian superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a series of Twitter posts in 2014. His dream came true and prayers were answered when the studio cast him in the role five years later, with Liu making his first official appearance at San Diego Comic-Con.
In an earlier interview with HuffPost, he shared he saw the role as “an opportunity to re-introduce ourselves to the world following years of stereotypes and caricatures and tired tropes.” Liu added, “I think seeing yourself represented in that way can have a profound impact on how you view your place in society, your cultural identity and what you are capable of achieving. I’m honoured that I played a small part in this fight, and I’m ready to bear that torch if and when it is asked of me.”
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings also stars Michelle Yeoh, Ronny Chieng, Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang and Florian Munteanu. The film is scheduled for release on September 3, 2021.
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