Marvel Studios has chosen Destin Daniel Cretton to direct Shang-Chi, their first superhero movie tentpole franchise with an Asian protagonist.
Shang-Chi first appeared in Special Marvel Edition #15 in December 1973. In the comics, Shang-Chi is the son of China-based globalist who raised and educated his progeny in his reclusive China compound, closed off to the outside world. The son trained in the martial arts and developed unsurpassed skills. He is eventually introduced to the outside world to do his father’s bidding and then has to come to grips with the fact his revered father might not be the humanitarian he has claimed to be and is closer to what others call him: The Devil’s Doctor. He also might be centuries old. The deceit makes them bitter enemies.
Choosing Cretton stays in line with the studio’s goal to take Shang-Chi in a direction like Black Panther and populate it with Asian-American talent. The studio has also tapped Chinese-American scribe, Dave Callaham, to write the screenplay. Callaham has strong credentials in the superhero and franchise-building realms and his own experiences as a Chinese-American will inform the Shang-Chi movie mythology. His recent work includes co-writing with Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns the upcoming DC Warner Bros sequel Wonder Woman 1984, and he is writing Sony’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2.
Cretton is currently helming Just Mercy, a film he wrote that stars Brie Larson and Michael B. Jordan. This will be his third film with Larson after working with her in Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle.
