MCU News: Marvel Eye Donnie Yen & Ludi Lin For Shang-Chi Roles

Yen meets Marvel? Hell. YES.

by Ewan Paterson
Donnie Yen Shang Chi
Pegasus Motion Pictures/Marvel

Marvel might be keeping their Phase Four slate under wraps for now, but news is slowly filtering out regarding the first three films releasing after Spider-Man: Far From Home. Photos recently emerged from the set of Black Widow, while Chloé Zhao's Eternals movie also seems to be progressing.

News has, however, been relatively harder to come by when it comes to Shang-Chi, with reports few and far between after the initial announcement that Dave Callaham and Destin Daniel Cretton would write and direct was made. Now however - courtesy of That Hashtag Show - we may have been given our first inkling of who may appear in Marvel's martial arts epic, with Donnie Yen (Ip Man, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Ludi Lin (Power Rangers, Aquaman) apparently in the running for two lead roles.

According to the report, Lin has been lobbying for the part of Shang-Chi since December. He's by no means the front-runner, and THS even go on to mention Ross Butler as another potential candidate, but Lin's "extensive martial arts training" has supposedly gotten him on Kevin Feige's radar.

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Ludi Lin Power Rangers
Lionsgate

Now for Donnie Yen. THS claim that that their source has told them Marvel "hoped" to meet with the actor for an undetermined role. While it's unclear what kind of role Yen could play, the story does acknowledge recent fan speculation regarding the potential inclusion of the Mandarin in Shang-Chi, and how Yen could fit the the description of the "wise, old statesman and one of [the] deadliest warriors" given in old casting breakdowns.

Lastly, the report also mentions how Shang-Chi is likely to start production this November, which would preclude a 2020 release and more likely place the film in one of Marvel's booked 2021 dates. It's not as soon as fans may have hoped, but for now, Shang-Chi remains one of the more enticing prospects for Marvel's Phase Four calendar. Here's hoping more news is forthcoming as SDCC 2019 inches closer.

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Would you like to see Ludi Lin as Shang-Chi? And who should Donnie Yen play if he's involved? Let us know in the comments below!

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.