Shang-Chi: Marvel Studios Artist Shares Alternate Costume Design

Long before Simu Liu was cast as Shang-Chi, a visual development team led by Andy Park was busy working on the first live-action look of Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu. Earlier this month, an art book was released in support of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, with Park now sharing some high-resolution artwork of the development pieces found in the tome. The latest shows a pre-Liu version of the character donning a completely original look, reminiscent of what one might find in a fantasy role-playing game.

“It was an absolute pleasure to explore the possibilities of what SHANG-CHI could look like during preproduction of the film years ago,” Park said in a new post on his Instagram account. “I did a full range from traditional to contemporary, from more comic accurate to comic adjacent as we do during this exploration stage.”

According to Park, he wanted to pay respect to Chinese culture, doing a deep-dive into its symbolism and mythology.

“I did a deep dive into research as far as Chinese culture was concerned… An exploration into historical symbolism, Chinese historical clothing, traditions, and, of course, the comic book source material was all necessary. Shang-Chi was created during the whole kung fu martial arts craze in the 1970s,” Park remarked in Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: The Art of the Movie (via The Direct).

He added, “I worked on different robes and jackets, exploring a lot of ancient Chinese elements but also merging them with a more modern sensibility and a Super Hero look. As with a lot of these films, we often don’t know the exact story when the Visual Development team first starts working on the film. But as the story develops, our ideas get refined.”

Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now available on Disney+, all major digital platforms, and wherever physical movies are sold. Shang-Chi 2 doesn’t have a release window yet.

What’d you think of Shang-Chi’s film 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!