By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
Those who pushed hard for an Asian American to be cast as the lead in the upcoming Netflix/Marvel series The Iron Fist are being thrown a bone.
MCU Exchange and That Hashtag Show are reporting that Netflix and Marvel are exclusively auditioning men of Asian descent for the role of Shang-Chi.
Perhaps I’m being too skeptical. This may be more than Hollywood’s penchant for casting minorities in secondary roles (ie the Black best friend of the leading White character).
Netflix is reportedly considering giving Shang-Chi his own Netflix series if fans react positively to the character.
Marvel fans may know Shang-Chi has actually been around for decades. He was originally conceived in 1972 as a kung fu master and son of villain Fu Manchu (red flag). The book The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu became very popular and survived until 1983, according to Wikipedia.
Shang-Chi would turn against his evil father (can you say Luke Skywalker) and would fight him as an agent of British intelligence. He has since reappeared with numerous guest appearances and had a brief revival in 1990, 2002 and 2007.
After the disappointment of Finn Jones being cast as Danny Rand, this gives fans of diversity a reason to smile. This, however, seems a bit of deja vu. After all, there was a time confidence was pretty high that an Asian actor would be cast as Danny Rand. Fans of diversity may want to wait and see before celebrating.
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