- In an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit, Liu said working with Leung had been “a master class in acting” and that he was “every bit as legendary as the legends say.”
- The president of Marvel Studios was also star-struck by Leung as he was “nearly speechless” after meeting the actor, according to Screen Rant.
- “Tony Leung does seem like a whole different layer of movie star,” said Feige “He is a very, very talented man. I don’t feel it was a masterstroke for us, I feel we were lucky that he chose us to make his first Hollywood film appearance in [Shang-Chi] and give all of himself and all of his talent to creating this amazing, amazing character of Wenwu. I’ve been around a lot of movie stars and a lot of living legends, but I was nearly speechless when I met him briefly on the set. Because he seems like such an otherworldly star directly from the sky [laughs].”
- The actor worked closely with Marvel and director Daniel Cretton to shape a more nuanced character.
- Cretton knew when he wrote the script with Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham that they wanted to do away with the original Mandarin, a comic book character that has carried some of the worst Asian stereotypes.
- “I just feel very happy that the conversation isn’t even remotely about a potential stereotype,” Cretton said in a Vanity Fair interview. “It’s just about a cool character, which is what we really hoped for. The biggest danger of Wenwu was him being a one dimensional stereotype. To see audience’s response to Tony’s version of this character is very satisfying.”