Marvel Studios Developing Asian Superhero Film ‘Shang-Chi’

[Jedijax719]

What is the deal with this film? It's March and we haven't gotten a single pic, teaser, or trailer and all's been VERY quiet.

Anyone think this will still make its July release date? If we get through March without a word, I'd say chances are slim to none.

 

[MisterPenguin]

What is the deal with this film? It's March and we haven't gotten a single pic, teaser, or trailer and all's been VERY quiet.

Anyone think this will still make its July release date? If we get through March without a word, I'd say chances are slim to none.

COVID has delayed production. The WandaVision director said they were finishing production just three weeks before the premier on D+.

I imagine other films are in the same predicament except for Black Widow which was completed over a year ago.

Also, everyone's holding their breath whether they'll pull the trigger to delay the films again.

 

[Jedijax719]

COVID has delayed production. The WandaVision director said they were finishing production just three weeks before the premier on D+.

I imagine other films are in the same predicament except for Black Widow which was completed over a year ago.

Also, everyone's holding their breath whether they'll pull the trigger to delay the films again.

Yeah I think that's the case with Shang Chi. We know Black Widow is coming out in May no matter what. Eternals is still 8 months away so they will have time. With Shang Chi, they can't really wait to see how Black Widow does before releasing a trailer UNLESS they plan to delay it. To when I have no idea because 2022 is pretty full (Strange 2, Thor 4, Panther 2, Marvel 2). Being an origin story and a relatively unknown hero, it really becomes a confusing matter.

 

[doctornick]

COVID has delayed production. The WandaVision director said they were finishing production just three weeks before the premier on D+.

I imagine other films are in the same predicament except for Black Widow which was completed over a year ago.

Also, everyone's holding their breath whether they'll pull the trigger to delay the films again.

And originally The Eternals was going to be released before Shang-Chi so it's possible that movie is further along than Shang-Chi despite their respective release dates.

 

[Mouse Trap]

So hard to predict right now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Black Widow and Shang-Chi both bumped back only by about a month to month and half to really play it safe while Eternals release date holds. Shang-Chi potentially lands on Labor Day weekend where Guardians of the Galaxy was quite successful years ago.

I can just as easily see all release dates holding, but Black Widow to July 4th weekend and Shang-Chi to Labor Day weekend seems like a way to play it safe if necessary.

 

[Quinnmac000]

Shang-Chi also has some other issues with Disney Asian based films underperforming/ anti chinese/asian sentiment in the US also a key factor.

 

[NateD1226]

 

[Jedijax719]

Didn't see this when I posted on the Black Widow thread.

They still need to release a trailer soon! 6 months is standard and, well, we are almost at 5.

 

[doctornick]

So, The Eternals I guess keeps its date in November (for now)?

 

[Jedijax719]

Now that they've landed on a release date and a supposed release format, they NEED to get out a trailer and poster ASAP. It's six months. They were clearly waiting until they knew what they would do with Black Widow and now they've settled on a release for that.

May 7 would have been WAY too late to release a teaser or trailer for Shang Chi if it had a July release. Now they don't even have a reason to wait until May 7. July would be a waste to start promoting it. This has been the most elusive future release the MCU ever had.

I keep thinking back to the debacle of Dark Tower and how its trailer wasn't dropped until 4 months prior to release. I also remember the problems they had with that movie and the horrible expectations as well as it being chopped down to a 90-minute editing mess.

If you follow the MCU at all, you can't help but be rather puzzled by this film and the level of almost nonchalant lack of marketing and almost apathy toward it. COVID or not.

 

[NateD1226]

Now that they've landed on a release date and a supposed release format, they NEED to get out a trailer and poster ASAP. It's six months. They were clearly waiting until they knew what they would do with Black Widow and now they've settled on a release for that.

May 7 would have been WAY too late to release a teaser or trailer for Shang Chi if it had a July release. Now they don't even have a reason to wait until May 7. July would be a waste to start promoting it. This has been the most elusive future release the MCU ever had.

I keep thinking back to the debacle of Dark Tower and how its trailer wasn't dropped until 4 months prior to release. I also remember the problems they had with that movie and the horrible expectations as well as it being chopped down to a 90-minute editing mess.

If you follow the MCU at all, you can't help but be rather puzzled by this film and the level of almost nonchalant lack of marketing and almost apathy toward it. COVID or not.

Ehh they actually don't. Cruella started its marketing campaign last month and it is doing just fine. It seems that 3-4 months before a movie's release date is when marketing starts to kick in. The MCU Disney+ shows had a 2-month marketing campaign and they are doing just fine. If they keep the 3-4 month marketing plan, then the earliest we would get a Shang-Chi trailer is probably the end of June so it plays in front of Black Widow.

This is gonna be the same for all the movies this year, including the MCU. It might go like this: a new Jungle Cruise trailer in front of Cruella, Shang-Chi trailer in front of Black Widow, Encanto trailer in front of Jungle Cruise, Eternals trailer in front of Shang-Chi, DS&MOM trailer in front of Eternals, Turning Red trailer in front of Encanto, and so on. Disney almost always has a new trailer that plays in front of their new movies at the theatres and they are all still hits. Who knows though, I could be totally wrong lol. Just picking up patterns I have seen the past few months.

 

[erasure fan1]

Ehh they actually don't.

True, they don't have to. The MCU is as close to self sufficient as you can get. But a good trailer gets the hype train rolling.

The MCU Disney+ shows had a 2-month marketing campaign and they are doing just fine.

Yes they only had a few months of marketing. But the first trailer footage was about a year ago. Of course it was a D+ combo trailer with footage from wanda and falcon and a few other D+ shows if I remember right. So I think it's perfectly reasonable to have expected a teaser by now and at 3 or 4 months we get the full story trailer and kickoff of the marketing campaign.

 

[DCLcruiser]

I'm not a huge comic buff, so as someone that loves MCU but isn't totally aware of all past stories, we definitely need a good promotional period for Shang-Chi. Frankly, I had totally forgotten about the Mandarin and who the Ten Rings were as they didn't have a lasting impact on me.

If this is primarily a martial arts movie, or like Iron Fist, and not your usual MCU fantasy/space/large scale, then appeal isn't as great.

Frankly, a lot of the upcoming MCU are lesser known characters so they will need to build up the suspense.

 

[Jedijax719]

Well, here's the thing. Many of the origin films made less than $200 million domestic. Only Iron Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel made more. The latter two were released in the midst of the Thanos films and already had teases (BP in Civil War and CM in the Infinity War post credit scene). Shang Chi is completely new. In the time of COVID and total uncertainty, hype is essential.

Spiderman NWH is an example of a movie that wouldn't need much push. But even that needs some in this climate. Shang Chi and Eternals needs that simply for the fact that most people don't know who they are at all.

If there's one thing that Marvel and Feige have been great at (among other things) is to tap into people's curiosity. You put out a teaser and people will flock to the internet to find out who these characters even are and their background. But for unknown characters, the only way you can do that is to hype it up.

4 months is okay for a sequel to a very successful film. But for an origin film for unknown characters? Not good enough.

Personally, I am most excited for Shang Chi and Eternals simply BECAUSE I don't know much about them and they are all new to me. Many I have spoken to don't know who they are and don't know anything about the movies coming out.

 

[erasure fan1]

If there's one thing that Marvel and Feige have been great at (among other things) is to tap into people's curiosity. You put out a teaser and people will flock to the internet to find out who these characters even are and their background. But for unknown characters, the only way you can do that is to hype it up.

4 months is okay for a sequel to a very successful film. But for an origin film for unknown characters? Not good enoug

Guardians is a great example. When announced, I thought, this could go not so well. A talking tree and racoon? Those are the characters you are choosing to introduce? I knew who they were, although I never read the comics. Most hadn't ever even heard of them. But after that first trailer, the buzz was huge in my circles. The MCU has been out of the spotlight for a while now. Wanda and Falcon helps but like you said, there's a lot of unknown in Shang Chi and Eternals. I've said it a hundred times now, get the MCU hype train steamrolling again.

 

[Jedijax719]

Loved GOTG!!!! One of my top 5 favorite MCU films. That had a very strong marketing push starting with Superbowl 2014 (6 or 7 months before release). And yes it is a great example. I had never heard of GOTG until the movie announcement. I researched a little and thought it sounded goofy. The rest is history.

And yes, without the momentum of the Thanos wars, MCU, while hot, has been without the heavy spotlight. So marketing has to ratcheted up.

I would expect a Shang Chi trailer in the next few weeks. Eternals can wait but probably not until July. Maybe May or June. Spiderman NWH can wait until July for a trailer.

 

[NateD1226]

So I think it's perfectly reasonable to have expected a teaser by now and at 3 or 4 months we get the full story trailer and kickoff of the marketing campaign.

Of course! I wasn't trying to push a different agenda or anything like that. I even said at the end of my post that I was just discussing patterns I have seen throughout the past year. I am very excited for all of these movies to come out as well and hope to see some of them soon!

 

[Jedijax719]

Solo had its first teaser trailer 3 1/2 months before its release. Sure, that wasn't during COVID times, but there was a LOT of criticism for the late teaser. That film, while not horrible, had SO many problems throughout production. And those problems led to a poor marketing plan and horrific box office results. Another potentially "big" movie that had a very late trailer drop was Dark Tower. That one was worse.

With 7 movies coming out between July, 2021 and July, 2022, there is going to have to be a LOT of overlapping promotion. Even if the most recent schedule changes weren't made, it's still FOUR MCU films released just in 2021. They cannot at all wait to promote one at a time. If so, they'd release a Shang-Chi trailer 2 months before release, an Eternals trailer 2 months, and Spider man 1 month.

What troubles me is that we've heard absolutely nothing about this film. We've heard buzz about Eternals and have seen the cast pictures from conventions (albeit not high quality). But there hasn't been a peep about Shang-Chi. And it wrapped filming a while ago.

 

[Darkprime]

If Black Widow does well on Disney+ I think there's a high chance this might get the Premier Access treatment as well but if it does it will certainly be the last MCU film that goes to premier access. Since by December theaters should be nearly back up and running in full capacity. Id say 85% capacity by December seems reasonable if not 100%. Plus Spider-Man is Sony so unless they figure out a deal to put it on Disney+ or magically come up with their own streaming service between now and then. Spider-Man will be 100% theatrical unless Sony sends it to a more traditional PVOD platform like Itunes but that's probably unlikely though.

 

[BrianLo]

What troubles me is that we've heard absolutely nothing about this film. We've heard buzz about Eternals and have seen the cast pictures from conventions (albeit not high quality). But there hasn't been a peep about Shang-Chi. And it wrapped filming a while ago.

That's because Eternals was meant to release first and filmed pre-pandemic. The Shang-Chi actor was also brought out to convention floors, but there was nothing to show because it hadn't started filming.

This is a pandemic issue more than anything. I understand you are probably excited, but marketing hasn't started because they clearly haven't been confident in its release date(s). It's a very simple explanation. When they are confident the date is sticking I'm sure they'll release the marketing hounds.