There has been no shortage of Marvel news and trailers lately, but the latest release is an especially important one: Marvel has dropped an official trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the first-ever martial arts film in the MCU. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is based on the Marvel Comics character Shang-Chi, and Canadian actor Simu Liu will star in the title role.
The film follows Shang-Chi, a martial arts master who trained with the Ten Rings organization since childhood. Although he was supposed to join the organization as an assassin, he instead chose to live a normal life in San Francisco. But leaving the Ten Rings behind won’t be so easy, and the trailer hints at family ties that are beginning to draw him back. Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous credits include Just Mercy starring Michael B. Jordan, will direct.
In both subject matter and on-screen representation, the film will cover new territory for Marvel. Aside from Liu, the film will feature Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, and Tony Leung as the leader of the Ten Rings (he’s also Shang-Chi’s father—a fraught relationship the film will certainly explore). In a recent Instagram post, Liu shared the first poster for the movie and pointed out that the cast is almost entirely Asian.
“Shang-Chi is more than just a movie,” he wrote. “It is a celebration of our culture and a rallying cry for the forgotten, the unseen, and the overlooked. It is a reminder to take up space, to stand tall, and to be unapologetically ourselves.”
The film joins a packed slate of Marvel releases this year, including the TV series WandaVision, Assembled, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as well as the upcoming Black Widow film (slated for release on July 9).
Check out the first trailer above, and keep an eye out for Shang-Chi when it hits theaters on Sept. 3, 2021.
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