Gadgetory

welcome to stream economy I am a little bit under the weather this week but the show must go on everybody and deadlines exclusively reported this week that Marvel is fast tracking none other than shang-chi to be its first Asian superhero Li after the wild success of Black Panther Marvel is hoping to do something similar with shang-chi and it looks like they already have a writer on board but we'll get to him in a minute so this movie isn't actually official official but it's likely Marvel isn't going to make anything official until at least phase 3 closes out with the next Avengers movie now if you aren't a huge comic book geek you might not be familiar with shang-chi so here's what we know shanky made his first appearance in December of 1973 he's a creation of Steve Englehart and jim Starlin and made that first appearance in special Marvel Edition number 15 happy birthday shang-chi you don't look a day over 20 even though you're 45 years old he is a half asian half American hero who actually until recently did not have any special powers except the ability to master many different types of combat so why he's called the master of kungfu he was taught by his father foo manchu who ends up being a little bit disappointing as far as dads go which lets all be real here is a classic trope he's been affiliated with the Heroes for Hire he's been on the Avengers and he also is kind of a lone wolf a lot of the time it's prequel and then also a few years ago in Avengers vol 5 at number 38 he gained the ability to replicate himself which could also be a power he ends up having in the MCU also fun fact this isn't the first time Marvel has considered making a movie starring the master of kung-fu all the way back in 2005 before the MCU had even began Marvel announced it had raised hundreds of millions of dollars and planned to make ten movies based off its comic characters and shang-chi was one of them as for the script I mentioned Marvel is already looking at a writer and that is Dave Callaghan this is a chinese-american writer and if you're wondering about his geek street cred well don't he co-wrote Wonder Woman 1984 and he's also co-writing the sequel to spider-man into the spider-verse this guy knows his stuff and he can also speak honestly to the cultural experience as well as easily avoid a lot of stereotypes that we tend to see in kung-fu movies which will be really nice now where could we see this movie well it's likely that we will not see it until at least phase 4 maybe the start of phase 5 but I'm guessing if they're fast tracking it like deadline says it's gonna be phase 4 and Kevin Feige Marvel super producer extraordinaire has had some things to say about the direction of phase 4 he said quote there are all sorts of adventures to be had unquote within the quantum realm in a recent book about the first 10 years of Marvel Studios but he's also cautioned fans not to get too crazy because Marvel isn't entirely 100% going in a cosmic direction so this might be a really good movie to keep the MCU grounded here on earth now as to why this movie is being fast-tracked well it's no secret that 2018 has seen a huge boom in Asian LED filmmaking by Asians for Asians with Asians just look at the success of crazy rich Asians or the fact that countries like China have been investing heavily in the film industry for years not to mention the Chinese movie-going audience is a huge source of revenue or potentially any way for any studio that can tap into that market so now that we know all the facts let's let's speculate a little bit let's fan cast shall we I think it's just as important to figure out who could play shang-chi and his father these are both key roles shang-chi is only 19 years old in the comics but it's possible they age him up just a little bit so they can cast a wider net for the role not for nothing but my personal choice for shang-chi would be Ross Butler who's on Riverdale honestly you guys this is a no brainer just cast this kid he's he would be amazing I think he'd do a great job in my humble opinion now as for Shang Chi's father foo Manchu isn't technically an original Marvel of creation not to mention the name carries a lot of not-so-great racial stereotyping bag in Hollywood so no likely modernize this character with a new background and likely a new name as for who could play this role I think you have to go in the direction of casting a legend in martial arts film which brings me to my three picks Jackie Chan gently and Donnie Yen these are amazing picks I think it would be a great nod to martial arts cinema of yore these are all icons in their own right they would all be excellent at this role it would be a meaty thing for them to dig their teeth into and I think any one of them would be great okay so now that we've talked about the characters let's talk about who's the badass director to tie it all together amazing Chinese director Chloe Chou is already helming Eternals so she's probably out crazy rich Asians Jon M Chu might be pretty tied up with the sequels to that movie but he'd still be a really good pick if he could make his schedule work Marvel could also decide to bring hulk director Angley back into the fold but i wonder if they'd rather have someone younger and fresher which brings me to what i feel is the most obvious choice and that is fast and furious director justin lin i mean how do you not hire this guy to direct this movie he's even directing an untitled shaolin temple remake he was made for this you guys and our final bit of speculation is how shang-chi might make his way into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe aside from his own standalone film of course there's going to be some post credits scene or some direct mention of him in one of the movies leading up to it so my best guess on how he might show up in the MCU has to do with a villain called midnight midnight is an African child raised alongside shang-chi who ends up carrying out fu-manchu's orders when he grows up could midnight be the antagonist in a I don't know Black Panther 2 maybe I think it's a good idea I'm also not Kevin Feige and I'm not in charge of the larger MCU but I am sure we will have to learn more about all of this and Shang Chi's standalone film after the events of the next Avengers movie as we get into phase for now until then I'm sure Saros has something to say hey Sara take it away so with thank about Marvel it's there and it's just quite a elation in it like like I saw opera so we just set the other and just weave from the commit and then what's the my name before that one was good but why wasn't it good oh I can't even find the energy figure I agree a bit Marvel it's just part of my life it's like peeing a bump sleeping and go to Tahoe and there are we man just like woman oh I'll get a cold or being a cop partying I'm gonna drink ask Marshall mushrooms everywhere Marvin's omnipresent Marvel was Lord and Savior when the ball drops and we're all Dustin Hershey's Marvel is there it will always be there it's been there before you were born and it will be there when you are dead last year thank you so much for watching we have one more episode until we go on a holiday break so be sure to come back next Saturday morning for an all-new episode of stream economy and check out previous episodes over here and I want to hear your best shaky theories down in the comments so get to it