Marvel is gearing up for an eventful Phase 4 with a plethora of comic book characters on standby for their big screen debut. One such debut is a standalone film about Chinese superhero Shang-Chi.
Details about the movie are still scarce although Marvel has already hired a screenwriter. Chinese-American film writer Dave Callaham has been tapped to pen the screenplay.
Callaham is no stranger to the superhero genre. He wrote the screenplay for DC's Wonder Woman sequel, Wonder Woman 1984 and the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2. He is also involved with Zombieland 2. His other film credits include Godzilla and The Expendables franchise.
Marvel has yet to find a director to helm the movie as well as the suitable actor to portray the role of Shang-Chi. A few names have been tossed here and there, including Steven Yeun and newcomer Lewis Tan.
Yeun played Glenn on the AMC series The Walking Dead. He may not be a trained martial artist, but he has already gained a loyal following for his lovable role in series. He can also perform heavy action stunts.
As for Tan, the 31-year old played the role of the drunken master in Iron Fist Season 1. He also briefly appeared in Deadpool 2 as Shatterstar. He is adept at martial arts, as he has displayed in Iron Fist, and he can perform his stunts. His other film credits, Into the Badlands and Wu Assassins, speak for his likelihood to portray the superhero Shang-Chi.
The stand-alone Shang-Chi film is slated to be Marvel's first movie with an Asian lead. The studio is said to be fast tracking the project so fans may know soon who has been cast for the lead role. It is expected that an Asian actor is to take part to commit to the original comic book character. Marvel and Callaham plan to "modernize the hero to avoid stereotypes that many comic characters of that era were saddled with."
Shang-Chi was heralded as the greatest martial artist in the world in the comics created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin in the 1970s. The character was patterned after Bruce Lee and is formerly known as the Master of Kung Fu.
Aside from his Kung Fu mastery, Shang-Chi also can make duplicates of himself and even became involved with the Avengers at some point. He also helped hone Spider-Man's skills.
