‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Star Simu Liu Wants to Make a Marvel Musical

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu wants to make a Marvel musical.

The highly anticipated next installment in the MCU, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is soon to be released, and early word of mouth on the picture has been highly positive. The film is Marvel Studios’ first attempt at making a classic martial arts film and is another way to continue diversifying the MCU.

Experimenting with various genres has been one of the keys to the MCU’s success, finding a way to tell superheroes stories in unique and exciting ways. Guardians of the Galaxy leaned heavily into the pulp sci-fi genre while Ant-Man was a heist film. The upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was once described as Marvel’s first horror film, and Thor: Love and Thunder is expected to be a full-blown romance, according to director Taika Waititi. One genre they have yet to tackle is the movie musical, but one of their stars would like to change that.

Liu, who stars as the titular hero Shang-Chi, is open to doing a musical. In an interview with RadioTimes, he jokingly said he would want the next Shang-Chi film to be a musical. Liu said audiences will get to see a hint of his singing in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in a karaoke scene.

Liu said: “Is it too early to say a musical? I’ve always been a bit of a karaoke junkie. You saw a little bit of my talent in the movie, and I think that it bodes for a very exciting future for Shang as one of the first musical heroes in the MCU. I think that you would agree.”

While most audiences associate the words superhero musical with the critically panned Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, there have been recent expansions of telling superhero stories in that format. The Flash season 3 episode 17 titled ‘Duet’ was a crossover musical episode with Supergirl, which featured music from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s Rachel Bloom and La La Land lyricist Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Additionally, the upcoming MCU film Eternals will feature a Bollywood-style dance number with Kumail Nanjiani’s character Kingo.

Given the popularity of musicals with hits like La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and Hamilton in recent years, it would make a certain amount of sense for the MCU to eventually make one. They have a wide array of musical talent across various films, including Zendaya, Bradley Cooper, and Brie Larson, that could join Liu in a Shang-Chi musical sequel or another project.

Marvel Studios recently announced they are creating an entire division for animation, and What If…? is currently running on Disney+. Given Disney’s long history of successful musicals, that could be the perfect place to test the idea out. (source: screenrant.com)

(ROHN ROMULO)