The wait for Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is almost over! The film hits theaters for preview screenings tonight but until then, Meng’er Zhang, who stars as Shang-Chi’s butt-kicking sister, gave ABC Audio a preview of what to expect.
“It’s a film about family. It’s a film about bond and love. We have a lot of drama, good comedy and countless breathtaking action sequences in it,” the actress spilled. “And I mean, it’s just it’s unlike anything you have ever seen in the Marvel Universe, right?”
Also unlike anything seen before, Shang-Chi is Marvel’s first Asian superhero movie and it was important to avoid the typical stereotypes when it comes to Asian characters on screen — so much so that they ditched over a month’s worth of content.
Explaining that her character once had red extensions, Zhang said, “…One day I read an article from Teen Vogue talking about how Asian female characters in Hollywood films, they always had some color in their hair to show that they’re a rebel, to show that they can fight, to show that they are tough. And I don’t want my character to follow that trend. So I called our director, Destin [Cretton], and asked him if we could take that out. And just the next day we took it out.”
Another first is that Shang-Chi is Zhang’s first film and its also the first time she’s done martial arts training — which is what might have contributed to her punching co-star Simu Liu in the face.
“I didn’t mean to! It was an accident… but I did enjoy it,” she said with a laugh.
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