'Shang-Chi' director wants Jackie Chan to be in the sequel

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“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” director Destin Daniel Cretton just opened up the possibility of adding Jackie Chan to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

A director’s dream: In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, the 43-year-old filmmaker picked the martial arts icon as the legendary Asian actor he’d love to cast in the “Shang-Chi” sequel.

  • “I mean, if we could ever get Jackie [Chan] into a movie that would be a lifelong dream of mine,” Cretton was quoted as saying.

  • Gamely agreeing with interviewer Law Sharma’s suggestion to “put that grand idea out into the universe,” the director said, “Yeah. Let's put it out there.”

  • Cretton previously shared in an earlier interview that the first film’s aesthetic was influenced by "every Jackie Chan movie ever made."

  • "We watched a lot of these classic movies to make sure that we were paying proper respect to them and to the long history of martial arts and kung-fu movies that came before us," Cretton told Fandango in August.

  • Fight coordinator Andy Cheng and late stunt coordinator Brad Allan, who both worked with Chan on several films, crafted the fight sequences in “Shang-Chi.”

  • Subtle but noticeable references to Chan and his films can be found throughout the Marvel Studios hit, such as Shang-Chi’s reluctance to fight, his fluid fighting moves (jacket wraparound technique Chan did in “Rumble in the Bronx”) and high-rise vertical chases (scaffolding scene in “Rush Hour”), among others.


A legendary actor in the legendary IP: Chan’s martial arts fighting style and inherent humor would seem to fit right into the fun and action-packed world of “Shang-Chi,” an assertion bolstered even more by Cretton’s revelation that “Shang-Chi” was directly influenced by Chan’s filmography.

  • Should the film delve into a more somber tone, the 67-year-old star has already shown his versatility as an actor through his recent forays into more serious, dramatic roles.

  • However, Chan has expressed reluctance in starring in more Hollywood films as he feels he is not getting offered roles that he wants to play, NextShark previously reported.

  • “All these years after the ‘Karate Kid’, I received so many scripts, but the role is [always] a Hong Kong policeman,” Chan said in an October 2020 interview with Filmelier. “That’s why it took me seven years to accept a role in another Hollywood film, with ‘The Foreigner.’ I want to make sure that the audience can see these different sides of Jackie Chan. I would like the public to consider me an actor who does action, not just an action star.”


While it was recently announced that Marvel Studios has greenlit the upcoming Shang-Chi sequel, no other details about it have been revealed yet.

Featured Image via Marvel Entertainment (left) and Every Frame a Painting (right)

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