Grey's Anatomy Star Alex Landi Wants to Play Marvel's Shang-Chi

With Avengers: Endgame in theaters and Spider-Man: Far From Home out in July, people are looking [...]

With Avengers: Endgame in theaters and Spider-Man: Far From Home out in July, people are looking ahead at the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the various films and characters that will populate it. One of the most anticipated is the rumored Shang-Chi film that will give Marvel Studios its first film centered around an Asian superhero and it isn't just fans who are getting excited. Grey's Anatomy star Alex Landi is, too, and he wants in on the action.

The actor, who plays Dr. Nico Kim on the long-running ABC drama, recently told HuffPost that Shang-Chi is his "dream" role and he would be all for playing it -- or any character in the film.

"The first Asian superhero for Marvel, that would be dope," Landi said. "That's my dream role right there. Any role in that movie, I think, would be great."

The Shang-Chi character was created amid the martial arts craze in the 1970s and in comics, Shang-Chi has served as a secret agent, an adventurer, and has been part of various teams such as Heroes for Hire and, more recently, The Avengers. While Shang-Chi doesn't have any superpowers per se, his combat abilities are unparalleled and through his mastery of chi, he can do things most humans can't.

While the character's earliest appearances have received some criticism for their stereotypical approach to Asian characters, the film will avoid that pitfall, with the script by David Callaham reportedly modernizing Shang-Chi as well as director Destin Daniel Cretton's plan to cast the film with primarily Asian and Asian American talent. The film presents a unique challenge for Marvel Studios, especially as the project will be very different from anything they've done before.

"I think every movie that we do is a risk," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said about the prospects of a Shang-Chi film previously. "We only want to do movies that people seem to think are risks. Doing the story of an Asian-American hero of Chinese heritage is something that is very intriguing to us. It will be really different and special."

"I hope audiences around the world respond to it in the same way they did to Steve Rogers... whether they have [an] American flag or not. It's about the individual storyline, spectacle and adventure that comes with Marvel Studios movies."

What do you think? Would you like to see Alex Landi as Shang-Chi? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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