 At the San Diego Comic-Con on July 20th, 2019, Marvel revealed their plans for Phase 4 that included a Black Widow movie, a new Thor movie, a new Doctor Strange movie, several TV shows, and of course, the movie that got everyone's attention, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, which is super awesome for Asians and Asian Americans everywhere as they're finally getting some representation in the MCU. Now, as a disclaimer, when I say that, I don't mean it as an SJW type of thing, where I insist that Asians must be in every single form of media, because they don't have to be. But when we do see it, it's kinda awesome and definitely deserves recognition. Now, I know you may be thinking, aren't there already tons of Asians in the MCU? What do you mean they're finally getting representation? Well, you're right. In a way. There was Wong in Doctor Strange, portrayed by Benedict Wong, and he's actually a pretty great character. There's Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man and the Wasp, played by Randall Park, and, well, I guess that's it. Well, yes, there's Mandarin in Iron Man 3, who was originally Asian in the comics, who just turns out to be a white guy. And then there's the ancient one in Doctor Strange, who was also originally Asian in the comics, who also turns out to be white. And of course Mantis, who's actress is part Korean. And Drax, who's actor is part Filipino. But they're aliens. So do they really count? And for the record, yes. I'm aware that he's not actually the Mandarin, just an actor hired to portray the Mandarin, but shouldn't the actor hired to portray him at least look like him? Are you just not off? Hey. I mean, sure. There's a few more here and there who have minor speaking roles, but for all intents and purposes, Shang-Chi is the first real representation in the MCU, getting a standalone movie in Phase 4. Not as a sidekick, not as comedic relief, but just him. Something Black Widow took 10 years to do. So just who is Shang-Chi? Well, he debuted in 1974 during the height of the martial arts craze in Hollywood, and only months after the death of Bruce Lee, whom his character was based off of. He's a master of Kung Fu. In his story, he's introduced destroying some bad guys in order to defeat some supervillain by the name of Fu Manchu. He's some Kung Fu legend who's actually revealed to be the father of Shang-Chi. In a flashback, Fu Manchu talks about how Shang-Chi's purpose is to be a perfect weapon and to do his bidding. His mission was to kill Dr. Petrie, who Fu Manchu calls the most evil man alive. Shang-Chi doesn't like killing. Nevertheless, he follows his father's orders. He sneaks into Dr. Petrie's house and finds some feeble old dude sleeping, and realizes that he couldn't hurt a fly. But after this moral dilemma, he follows the orders of Fu Manchu and kills him despite his own morals. Just before escaping, however, Sir Dennis Nailand Smith stops him at gunpoint. Shang-Chi tells him that he killed Dr. Petrie because he's the most evil man alive, as his father told him. However, Smith explains to Shang-Chi that Fu Manchu is actually evil, explaining how he's a cunning and capable man who plans on taking over the world with his organization of elite assassins, Sifan. And he and Dr. Petrie had tried to stop him ages ago. Shang-Chi asks his mother if this is true, and she confirms everything, saying that, honestly, she didn't love him, she just married him for his powers. It's kind of shallow if you ask me. Anyways, Shang-Chi finally confronts his father, who reveals his evil plan of taking over the entire world. Well, the story goes on, and eventually Shang-Chi teams up with Smith in order to thwart his father's evil plans and stop him. Yeah, as a side note, the name Fu Manchu is a direct reference to Sax Romer's Fu Manchu from his novels, which kind of propagated the overtly racist evil Asian mastermind stereotype, which is the physical embodiment of the yellow peril as well as the negative Western views towards the Chinese, which has understandably sparked some controversy. I mean, I guess I could compare this to if Luke Cage had an uncle named Tom. It's just that no matter how nuanced and interesting and complex the character is, at the end of the day, his name is Uncle Tom, and that's kind of the gist of it. Anyways, you may be wondering, so what's a superpower? He has no, well, that's not exactly true. He's considered to be the best fighter in the Marvel Universe, and he's so good at Kung Fu that it basically is his superpower. Yeah, he's that good. And to spice things up, Marvel also gave him the ability to make clones of himself. Since his first story, he's fought alongside other superheroes such as Daredevil, The Thing, Spider-Man, The X-Men, and even The Avengers. Outside of the comics, however, he hasn't really made much of an appearance besides being a playable character in the mobile game Marvel Future Fight, as well as the 2005 Shang-Chi film that was planned, but ended up being scrapped. What may be more interesting than the story of Shang-Chi, however, is the story of his actor, Simu Yu. You may know him from the popular show Kim's Convenience, as well as an extra in Pacific Rim. Oh, and these stock photos. I got this call to do a stock photo shoot for about 120 bucks, and I said, okay, I don't know what this is, but I had to put on a shirt and act like I was in a bunch of business meetings, and those images are now used on corporate websites, used in advertisements. I believe I am on the cover of a count of textbooks now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Life's a trip. I don't know. Well, to be honest, he hasn't been in a ton of big movies or TV shows, which makes Marvel's decision to choose an unknown actor to play such a big role a really bold one. And bold decisions is what Marvel does best. So Simu Yu is ethnically Chinese, but his family immigrated to Canada when he was five. He studied finance and accounting, which he apparently hated, and did a couple of stock photo shoots and worked with long food productions before finally being tapped by Marvel for his role as Shang-Chi. From what we know about him, he seems to be a super humble guy who's always been advocating for an Asian-American superhero. In fact, on December 3rd, 2018, he tweeted, OK, Marvel, are we going to talk or what? Hashtag Shang-Chi. The rest is history. He and Marvel talked. After the big Phase 4 news dropped on July 20th, Liu responded to his own tweet, simply saying, And that's pretty much it. Hopefully we'll hear some more news soon. Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings is scheduled to come out on February 12th, 2021. And we're all super excited to see it. What do you think about Marvel's casting choice for Shang-Chi? Do you think they should keep Fu Manchu as the antagonist of the movie? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more great content. And remember, as we've learned, all you need to do to become a Marvel superhero is write some cleverly worded tweets.