Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton has recently revealed the many intentional barriers and stereotypes that he worked hard to dismantle in the film, the main one being the absence of a romantic relationship developing on screen. Cretton faced lots of challenges throughout the making of this Marvel Studios film, but no decision he made was done without deep thought or purpose.
The notion of deciding to let Shang-Chi and Katy remain platonic was something Cretton went back and forth on while working on the Marvel Studios film. Cretton went into directing Shang-Chi with the intent to break down classic race tropes and move away from the idea that a friendship cannot contain the same amount of love and intimacy. The director spoke about his meaning and thought process behind the notion that platonic relationships don’t carry the same meaning and value as romantic ones.
“Weirdly, you don’t see very much of that type of relationship, particularly in movies like this. We kept going back and forth, because there’s an argument against doing that - you also don’t see Asian male romantic leads. But it just never felt right for this story to even dip into that," Cretton said to the Variety. "Because Shang- Chi’s drama is so deeply connected to his family and this pretty intense stuff he had to deal with, that romance always felt forced. A friendship like this - which feels very much like a lot of friends that I have, where it’s never been romantic but it’s also deeply caring and a very real friendship - was something that we don’t see very much of in movies. It felt very real to me, and I just didn’t feel like we needed to push beyond that.” The excerpt was excluded from the original piece because it contained spoilers for Shang-Chi.
However, Cretton wasn’t just pushing the boundaries when it came to the types of relationships that were portrayed, he was also pushing back against Asian stereotypes that keep them in a box. The director has stated that he was able to achieve this by casting Asian actors who were dedicated to playing these characters in a completely different and expansive way. He selectively sought out stars for Shang-Chi whose purpose is to create meaningful representation yet still remain void of their cultural identity being the only quality to them.
The casting for this film was a unique struggle, but Cretton was able to challenge racial expectations by making the characters multidimensional and connecting back to a sense of shared humanity. He stated in an interview with Variety that as the MCU's first main Asian superhero, he wanted Simu Liu's Shang-Chi to be able to stand should-to-shoulder with other MCU heroes, in addition to being a skilled martial artist.
Shang-Chi’s box office debut left many open-ended and lingering questions for fans, especially from those mysterious post-credit scenes. The palpable and incredible chemistry between characters Shang-Chi (Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) was teased but never fully explored in the film, and now fans know why.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.
Source: Variety