Shang-Chi's Ten Rings Nearly Looked Entirely Different
The legendary Ten Rings organization has been involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the very beginning, first appearing as the radical group in Iron Man (2008) that took Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) captive. Fast forward 13 years and the group has returned and with it, the actual Ten Rings the group was formed around. In the Marvel source material, the Ten Rings are actual rings forged out of alien metal, each carrying a different power.
As it turns out, there was once a time where the rings were going to act somewhat similar in live-action. At the very least, there was a point in time each ring had a different color for each power they produced, though the studio ended up scrubbing that in hopes of appeasing mass-market audiences.
"The Ten Rings actually went through a range of color changes," Weta Digital VFX Boss Sean Walker tells us. "At one point, each individual effect had its individual styled use of the Rings. For example, when Wenwu is creating a bustle out of them, or a whip, or projectiles, they actually had their own unique color scheme, they were all in a similar color palette."
The visual effects supe tells us Wenwu's (Tony Leung) color palette involved blues and purples while Shang-Chi's ring palette involved orange, red, and green.
"But in order to really clearly define this is Wenwu and this is Shang-Chi, we stuck to a much narrower color palette," Walker adds. "So Shang-Chi's colors actually mimic his mum's color palette, so we looked to her for her greens and for yellows and greens. Especially in the initial fight between his parents."
As you know by now, the color schemes were scrubbed in favor of two colors: Wenwu had blue rings throughout the movie and Shang-Chi had orange whenever he had control of the rings.
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.
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