Can Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings fix Marvel’s ‘Asian problem’?

When it comes to Asian superheroes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has left a lot to be desired. Keen to avoid a backlash when depicting the traditionally stereotyped Mandarin supervillain in Iron Man 3, the studio cleverly cast part-south Asian actor Ben Kingsley as a drunken English luvvie, Trevor Slattery, who was only ever playing the role of Tony Stark’s evil nemesis. The only problem was that this was another role not going to an actor of east Asian extraction.

Then there were the Netflix Marvel TV shows, in particular Iron Fist. While only loosely connected to the MCU, Iron Fist fell into the problematic “white saviour” trap by casting Finn Jones as kung-fu-kicking New York rich kid Danny Rand, a stereotypical white guy who beats the Asian martial arts experts at their own game. Race-swapping Rand would have been to depart from the line of the original comic book, but that did not stop the studio casting Tilda Swinton as a “Celtic” take on the traditionally Asian Ancient One in Doctor Strange.

Continuing down this path was never going to wash after Black Panther proved the box-office firepower of a superhero movie populated almost entirely by actors of colour. And now Marvel has “fixed” its “Asian problem” by announcing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the first full trailer for which debuted this week. Instead of Ben Kingsley as Slattery, we get the inimitable Tony Leung as Wenwu, AKA the real Mandarin, while the even more grossly racist figure of Fu Manchu (who was Shang-Chi’s father in the original, 70s Master of Kung Fu comic-book run) has been wisely banished from sight.

When it comes to Asian superheroes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has left a lot to be desired. Keen to avoid a backlash when depicting the traditionally stereotyped Mandarin supervillain in Iron Man 3, the studio cleverly cast part-south Asian actor Ben Kingsley as a drunken English luvvie, Trevor Slattery, who was only ever playing the role of Tony Stark’s evil nemesis. The only problem was that this was another role not going to an actor of east Asian extraction.

Then there were the Netflix Marvel TV shows, in particular Iron Fist. While only loosely connected to the MCU, Iron Fist fell into the problematic “white saviour” trap by casting Finn Jones as kung-fu-kicking New York rich kid Danny Rand, a stereotypical white guy who beats the Asian martial arts experts at their own game. Race-swapping Rand would have been to depart from the line of the original comic book, but that did not stop the studio casting Tilda Swinton as a “Celtic” take on the traditionally Asian Ancient One in Doctor Strange.

Continuing down this path was never going to wash after Black Panther proved the box-office firepower of a superhero movie populated almost entirely by actors of colour. And now Marvel has “fixed” its “Asian problem” by announcing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the first full trailer for which debuted this week. Instead of Ben Kingsley as Slattery, we get the inimitable Tony Leung as Wenwu, AKA the real Mandarin, while the even more grossly racist figure of Fu Manchu (who was Shang-Chi’s father in the original, 70s Master of Kung Fu comic-book run) has been wisely banished from sight.

“I didn’t think I was going to end up getting the gig,” Cretton told BuzzFeed. “I honestly thought at best I could maybe, through the process of meeting with them, just explain some of the things that would be offensive to me, and maybe guide it in some way just by getting my voice in someone’s ear.”