Marvel’s Kevin Feige Wanted to Make Shang-Chi 20 Years Ago

If Kevin Feige had his way, he would have made Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings decades ago. The producer began working on comic book properties in the early 2000s, and that’s about when Marvel started to think of bringing the Master of Kung Fu to the silver screen. In one new interview, Feige says he and his team have wanted to do a Shang-Chi movie for nearly 20 years, they were simply waiting to find the right filmmaker to do it.

“Shang-Chi is a movie that ended up on a ‘Wouldn’t It Be Great’ list where ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could do this as a movie,’ probably twenty years ago,” Feige told Rotten Tomatoes. “It’s a great story of a young man that realizes his father is essentially one of the world’s greatest supervillains and one of the world’s greatest criminals. How do you process that? And how do you deal with that as a child? How do you evolve beyond that?”

The producer says director Destin Daniel Cretton was the perfect choice for the project, because of his background with intense character-driven stories, films that often require much smaller budgets than the standard Marvel blockbuster.

“That was a great, driving story that we wanted to explore someday. Looking for a filmmaker to do it was, as it always is, important and Destin [Daniel Cretton] coming in and, again, dedicating his talents,” Feige added. “He’s an amazing filmmaker that makes amazing movies that have been on the smaller-budgeting size compared to a big Marvel movie, but coming in and giving his vision to this father and son is special.”

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 currently set for release on September 3rd.

What other characters do you think will end up popping up in Shang-Chi? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!