Marvel’s most recent release Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings came out on Sept. 3, and viewers are already raving about the movie. Getting a 92% overall on Rotten Tomatoes, some say this movie is Marvel’s best since Black Panther. Not only has it been getting incredible reviews, the movie broke the all-time U.S. Labor Day box office record earning $75.5 million just in North America according to mymodernmet.com.

Actor Simu Liu’s character and role in the movie, the protagonist Shang Chi, is what he’s wanted since he started acting. 

“I’ve been manifesting this kind of superhero role for myself,” Liu said. 

Marvel’s racial inclusion of this movie is yet another way the company is trying to make themselves more diverse. Starting with the inclusion in the Black Panther and Captain Marvel movies, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings aids in their goal of increased diversity. 

This movie is the first to have an “Asian lead” who breaks the stereotype of the “kung-fu Asian dude” said Daniel Cretton, the director of the movie. 

During auditions for the main role, Liu was described as having a “billion dollar smile” according to hollywoodreporter.com. The amount of work he put into getting the part was impressive, even ending his first audition with a backflip. 

A main difference between this movie and many other Marvel movies is the lack of information extracted from the comics. The Shang-Chi comic was full of politically incorrect and culturally offensive lines.

“In terms of what we actually extracted from the comic books, I think it was a name and the fact that he was a really good fighter, and the fact that he had a very complicated relationship with his dad,” Liu told The Washington Post,  referring to the Shang-Chi character.

Although the movie is incredibly popular right now, some Marvel fans were worried about the lack of excitement from other fans. 

Marquez Pereira on TikTok stated that “the fact that ‘Shang-Chi is the least hyped movie feels racially motivated,” referring to the absence of popularity when the movie was being advertised. Other fans believed that the movie was barely being promoted in general and Simu Liu was doing all of the publicity himself. 

“Simu Liu has taken the entire promotional campaign into his own hands at this point,” Tyson or @slickla34 said on TikTok as well. Thankfully, the movie has risen in popularity since its release. 

Marvel Studios has been releasing incredibly popular films since its creation in 1993. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is no exception to this rule. In fact, the amount of praise it has been getting from fans says the exact opposite. The outbreak of COVID-19 halted the release of movies from Marvel, however the recent publication of this movie has proven to be a very strong comeback. Marvel fans have always expected the studio’s movies to be great, and most of them agree that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has exceeded their expectations in terms of content and inclusivity.