At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios revealed that Simu Liu will be taking on the title role in
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The actor has since expressed his excitement to play the character in numerous interviews, and now director Destin Daniel Cretton has talked about what makes the
Kim's Convenience star the right choice to play the Master of Kung-Fu.
"He’s awesome," the filmmaker says in the video below.
"There’s just an undefined thing that when somebody pops, everybody’s in agreement, and they’re just really excited."
After detailing what he hopes to bring to the project, Cretton was asked about the possibility of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel making an appearance in Shang-Chi. That may sound random, but they have actually worked together on a number of occasions, including Short Term 12, The Glass Castle, and Just Mercy (which is set to be released this winter).
"I mean, I think there's always room for Brie. But I don't know, we'll see," he teased.
Hear more from the director about his plans for Shang-Chi in the MCU in the player below:
Hit the "View List" button for a reminder of all
the biggest Marvel Studios reveals at D23!
USAgent Is Coming To The Falcon And The Winter Soldier
There's been a lot of speculation that
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will feature the government attempting to appoint their own new Captain America (who isn't Sam Wilson), and that was pretty much confirmed over the weekend when we learned that Wyatt Russell will be playing John Walker, a character better known to comic book fans as USAgent.
In other casting news, Emily VanCamp's will return as Sharon Carter, something else which points to the government playing a key role in however this adventure for Sam and Bucky will play out.
Some Familiar Names Board WandaVision
WandaVision hasn't started shooting yet, but a sizzle reel was shown to give fans an idea what to expect from the Disney+ series. Featuring a mixture of clips from the
Dick Van Dyke Show and some of The Vision and Scarlet Witch's most memorable MCU moments, it will reportedly be part suburban sitcom and part action epic.
Surprisingly, Kat Dennings will make her return as Darcy Lewis from the
Thor franchise, and, honestly, it's hard to imagine who she will fit in.
Ant-Man and The Wasp's Randall Park will also be back as FBI Agent Jimmy Woo, while Kathryn Hahn has been cast to play a mysterious neighbour to the superpowered couple.
This one is really shaping up to be something special.
Barry Keoghan And Gemma Chan Join The Cast Of Eternals
The cast of
Eternals was already massive, and it got even bigger at D23 when Barry Keoghan and Gemma Chan were added to the team's roster. Keoghan is playing Druig, a powerful member of this group who has frequently butted heads with his fellow Eternals over the years.
As for Chan, she'll be suiting up as Sersi, a role we originally thought would be filled by Angelina Jolie. There's no word on how Marvel Studios intends to explain why she looks so similar to
Captain Marvel's Minn-Erva, but her being covered in blue make-up in that movie will probably mean that most fans won't even realise. Sersi is actually one of the mightiest Eternals.
Phase 4 Gets Even More Epic
We didn't really get any new movie announcements at D23, but Marvel Studios did reveal that three more TV shows are coming to Disney+ in 2022. The first is
Ms. Marvel, a series which will revolve around Muslim superhero Kamala Khan; Kevin Feige also confirmed that there are plans to bring that character to the big screen.
The second series is
Moon Knight, and fans have been anxious to see the unhinged Marc Spector's vigilante story play out on the streets of the MCU for a long time now. Finally, it was revealed that The Hulk's cousin
She-Hulk is also coming to the small screen, and that's bound to be a big budget project given how much money will be needed to bring her to life in live-action.
Kevin Feige And Tom Holland Address Spider-Man's Future
Heading into D23, we knew it was going to be an interesting weekend for Marvel Studios. While none of us were expecting Kevin Feige to hit the stage and announce the next
Spider-Man movie (set in the MCU), it was clear that something would have to be said about the situation.
Well, both he and star Tom Holland did comment on the matter, and it now definitely sounds like the relationship between Disney and Sony Pictures has reached its end. The actor said he will continue playing the wall-crawler, but noted that the hero's future on screen will now be
"very different."
As for the Marvel Studios boss, he said
"It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever" and noted that he was
"thankful" that they
"told the story we wanted to tell." However, it's impossible to imagine he's happy with things ending the way they have.
What If? Features Marvel Zombies And More
Fans in attendance for the Disney+ D23 panel were treated to a first look at footage from
What If? and it's reportedly quite similar to the Disney Channel's Star Wars: Resistance TV series. Among the snippets shown were shots of The Winter Soldier battling a zombie version of Captain America, T'Challa suited up as Star-Lord, and a skinny Steve Rogers decked out in a massive Iron Man suit.
By far the biggest talking point, however, was
our first look at Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter as Captain Carter/Captain Britain. This was actually the first episode of
What If? to be revealed by Marvel Studios, so don't be surprised if much of the show's marketing campaign revolves around this alternate universe version of the fan-favourite character and her brand new persona.
Black Widow's New Costumes
We were treated to a lot of great concept art over the weekend,
including a new WandaVision poster teasing the Scarlet Witch's comic accurate costume,
another look at Eternals' Celestials, and
the suits that'll be worn by The Falcon and Bucky in their upcoming Disney+ series.
Something that really got fans talking, though, is the
Black Widow concept art and poster which reveals that she'll don a number of new suits in her solo movie (including one that's completely white). The poster also featured a new shot of Taskmaster, while David Harbour's suited up Red Guardian definitely looks like Russia's own version of Captain America!
Kit Harington Is The MCU's Black Knight
Barry Keoghan and Gemma Chan weren't the only additions made to
Eternals on Saturday.
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington will be suiting up as Black Knight, a member of The Avengers in the comic books and someone who we've heard is coming to the MCU for quite some time now.
It sounds like much of the plot will revolve around the love story between Sersi and the Black Knight, and time will tell whether this is a one-time deal for Harington or if Marvel Studios plans to bring him into the present day somehow (possibly via time-travel and the Quantum Realm). Either way, this is a great casting addition, even if some fans are disappointed he's not the new Wolverine!
Loki Lands A Director
We didn't learn a whole lot more about
Loki over the weekend aside from the fact that it will run for six episodes. It's also going to follow the villainous version of Loki who escaped during
Avengers: Endgame, and fans are already speculating wildly about how he'll factor into Thor: Love and Thunder.
Something that was actually confirmed, though, is the fact that all six instalments of
Loki will be directed by
Sex Education helmer Kate Herron. Time will tell what she ultimately brings to the table.
Black Panther II Gets A Release Date
Marvel Studios decided against revealing a long list of the new movies coming to theaters in 2022, but we do now know at least one of them, and it's a biggie!
Taking the spot normally reserved for Earth's Mightiest Heroes,
Black Panther II (the subtitle simply hasn't been chosen yet) will claw its way into theaters on May 6th, 2022. As expected, Ryan Coogler will be directing and Chadwick Boseman is obviously going to reprise his role as T'Challa. Beyond that, we know very little about what to expect.
Continue reading below for a recap of Phase 4
reveals from last month's San Diego Comic-Con!
During the panel, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed that every movie released up until now is part of "The Infinity Saga." Here, we see the brand new logo for those first three phases.
This is a fairly simple logo but one which may match the tone. Kevin Feige said it will be 100% Jack Kirby-inspired so it's a little surprising that there's not more evidence of that in this title.
Sadly, we'll never get to see Iron Man battle the real Mandarin but he will be the lead villain of this movie. In case the title didn't make it clear, that logo emphasises those ten (magic?) rings too.
The
Doctor Strange logo has received something of an overhaul but it's interesting to see how the subtitle is even bigger. Scarlet Witch will appear in the sequel so the red may be a homage to her.
Just like
Thor: Ragnarok had a very unique logo, so too does
Thor: Love and Thunder. That's a title which could have a number of meanings, particularly now we know Valkyrie is indeed gay.
Honestly, what else did you expect? This is to the point and exactly what you would expect from a gritty movie featuring the fan-favourite Avenger. It's good to see her logo front and centre too.
The biggest surprise at Comic-Con was, of course, the fact that Blade is returning to the big screen. This logo perfectly emcompasses the fact that the Vampire Hunter operates both night and day.
This may be titled
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier but the presence of Captain America's shield should tell you all you need to know; Sam Wilson is going to take on that persona on Disney+!
This is still a pretty weird title but it's easy to see the 50s inspiration here. It's been said on a number of occasions that the show will have a retro aesthetic as we head into the MCU's suburbs.
This title treatment is very different and it's hard to say what, if anything, it tells us about the series. What we do know, though, is that it will revolve around the God of Mischief from 2012.
This is simple but awesome and if you look closely, you may notice that we get what could be our first look at the show's animation style. Is that the Red Skull wearing Captain America's suit?
The logo for
Hawkeye is obviously inspired by Matt Fraction's run and that makes sense, especially as the comic book series revolved around Clint Barton training and working with Kate Bishop.
And here it is, Marvel's Phase 4 slate. However, this probably isn't the entire slate because these movies and TV shows are only spread out over two years and that would be a very short Phase!