Shang-Chi Used Star’s Real Eyes for the Great Protector Dragon

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is largely built upon the Easter eggs hinting at the franchise’s various properties. From the now-common to post-credit scene to mentions and nods spread throughout entire movies, enough breadcrumbs are placed along the way to keep long-time fans fed. When it comes to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, however, it seems Marvel Studios took it up a notch.

Choosing to combine story with Easter egg hunting goodness, one of the film’s lead visual effects supervisor tells ComicBook.com the eyes used in the digital model for the Great Protector Dragon are the same set of peepers belonging to one of the movie’s most integral players.

“We kept looking at Shang’s mother for reference for almost everything,” Weta Digital VFX Supervisor Sean Walker tells us. “Even the Dragon’s eyes were initially based off by Fala Chen’s eyes, the actress who played Shang’s mom.”

Walker then adds that there are Easter eggs throughout the entire movie with similar nods to characters, especially involving Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and his immediate family members. The movie was always, after all, based on the complicated dynamics between Shang-Chi and his father.

“We definitely pulled directly the thematic from the comics of a very complicated relationship between a father and a son. And we wanted to inject that with our own experience,” Cretton previously told ComicBook.com. “Growing up as an Asian-American in Hawaii and Dave Callaham, growing up as a Chinese-American in the Bay Area… We just wanted to make sure that Shang-Chi felt like our friends, that felt like he was surrounded by characters who felt like our family, and watch him go on a journey that we can fully relate to, so that was the core of our creative hope for this movie.”

Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, which is now in theaters.

What did you think of Shang-Chi’s MCU debut? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!