Director Destin Daniel Cretton just gave us even more reasons to be excited about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, revealing that several kung-fu classics inspired the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. Talking to Fandango about the upcoming film, Cretton shared how the creative team behind Shang-Chi watched many martial-arts movies during production so that they could pay the "proper respect to them" with the MCU title. So, great fist fights filmed in creative ways with real martial artists? Let’s do this more often, Marvel!
When asked which direct inspirations he had while making Shang-Chi, Cretton said that “one of the very loose inspirations for tone and character was Good Will Hunting, which may be a surprise.” That indeed is a surprise, as a drama involving a mathematical genius is not the first film to come to mind when we think about powerful dragons and mystical arts. However, Creton cleared up his comment by adding that “Will Hunting [Matt Damon] is a character that I think has a lot of similarities to Shang-Chi [Simu Liu], just in that they have a big secret and they have a lot of baggage that they have to learn to deal with in order to step into their fully realized shoes.”
What about the classic kung-fu movie energy that Shang-Chi tries to bring into the MCU? Well, for that, Cretton’s list of inspiration is long. In the director's words, the movies he drew inspiration from included:
“Every Jackie Chan movie ever made, the Ip Man series — there's a big inspiration from Jet Li's Tai-Chi Master, and, of course, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There is a long list. I cannot not give enough props to Kung Fu Hustle, which is one of my favorites. We watched a lot of these classic movies to make sure that we were paying proper respect to them and to the long history of martial arts and kung-fu movies that came before us.”
Shang-Chi’s previous trailers have already shown that the movie is an action-packed adventure that doesn’t shy away from its Asian roots. If Cretton had all these great sources of inspiration, we might be getting one of the most thrilling superhero films yet. And for the fans who are eager to understand how Shang-Chi fits in the big scheme of things, Cretton even confirmed that “Shang-Chi is set in the present day in the MCU timeline.” By now, we should all know how MCU movies work, but Cretton also added that "audiences should most definitely stick around" for any post-credits scenes.
Directed by Cretton from a script he co-wrote with David Callaham and Andrew Lanham, Shang-Chi's cast includes Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Wenwu (aka the Mandarin), Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, Florian Munteanu as the villain Razor Fist, and Meng’er Zhang as Shang-Chi's estranged sister Xialing, Michelle Yeoh as the protector of a mythical city Jiang Li, Fala Chen, and Ronny Chieng.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will arrive in theaters on September 3.
Here's the official synopsis for the film:
Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. The film also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi's friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng'er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng.