Kevin Feige Reveals Why His First ‘Shang-Chi’ Meeting With Director Destin Daniel Cretton Didn’t Go As Expected

With The Falcon and The Winter Soldier wrapping up its six episode run later this week, Marvel is already rolling out the red carpet for its next action spectacular, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The martial arts epic will feature an eclectic mix of styles ranging from the gorgeously cinematic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to the intricate, fast paced moves of Jackie Chan. Bringing the film together is director Destin Daniel Cretton who got his start in the indie world with Short Term 12. However, in a new Entertainment Weekly feature on Shang-Chi, Cretton reveals that had no desire to be a part of “capes and comic book heroes” when he finally got a chance to make movies, and he even said as much when he first met Marvel super producer Kevin Feige.

“That’s usually not the way director meetings start, by saying, ‘You know, I was never interested in doing one of these,’” Feige told EW with a laugh. But according to Cretton, he couldn’t resist the desire to put his in the ring when he heard Marvel was getting ready to make Shang-Chi a part of its Phase Four slate. More importantly, he knew the importance of representation to kids who don’t see enough of themselves when it comes to the superhero world:

“When that announcement came out, I just went instantly back to my childhood,” Cretton explains. “[Growing up] all I had was Spider-Man. Because he had the mask on, I could dress up like Spider-Man for Halloween. I had a handful of other characters that looked like me on screen, but there were maybe two or three that I could choose from, and superheroes were not a part of that.”

The film also dropped a teaser trailer, and in addition to the EW feature, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu tweeted the first official poster for the film and promised that a full trailer is coming in a few weeks:

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings hits theaters on September 3, 2021.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)