Destin Daniel Cretton‘s massive success with “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (the second-fastest film to pass a billion dollars at the global box office) has now turned all eyes to the long-delayed “Shang-Chi 2,” which the director revealed is now in very early development stages with screenwriter Dave Callaham (“Shang-Chi,”” Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse”). He’s now tiptoeing around some of the reasoning WHY it’s been taking so long, other than having been enlisted for “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” before pivoting to his “Spider-Man” sequel.
During a wide-ranging interview with The Wrap, the in-demand director suggests that industry strength has been somewhat diminished in recent years, and that Marvel has slowed down its slate releases after promising to focus on quality over quantity (“X-Men,” “Black Panther 3,” and “Nova” are their focus after “Secret Wars“).
“I do think it’s frustrating when these things are like left out in the open, and you never see them. And “Shang-Chi” is one of those. It’s still hanging out there,” said Cretton of the delays on the sequel to the 2021 martial arts actioner. “I have every intention of answering the question…When you really look at what happened to the industry, at least from my perspective, it was just like everything went to s*** after that. I feel like if Marvel was where it was before, we would have had maybe two sequels already. Who knows?”
He also clarified that while action star Jackie Chan did visit the set of “Brand New Day,” he debunks the internet rumor from over the weekend that he and his stunt team worked on the movie. Notably, Chan was close to and mentored “Shang-Chi” stunt coordinator Brad Allan, and the late Allan’s own protege Peng Zhang was handling the stunts on “Brand New Day.” Could that newly fostered relationship lead to a role in “Shang-Chi 2”? Only time will tell.
Both “Shang-Chi 2” and the assumed return for “Spider-Man 5” won’t be happening anytime soon (neither have completed shooting scripts ready to go, or public studio greenlight), as Cretton is now in the pre-production stage of his live-action “Naruto” film at Lionsgate, as they’ve started a global casting search to fill main roles. So, fans of both Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi (who will be seen next in “Avengers: Doomsday” in December and most likely “Secret Wars,” too) and Tom Holland‘s Spidey will have to tap into their patience as Cretton navigates a busy schedule.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is certainly looking to be on a good path to surpass the box office total of “No Way Home” ($1.9 billion), cementing Cretton as a bankable blockbuster filmmaker and, in tandem, opening the doors for a slew of other dream projects to be made in the future, not just existing studio IP. What he does after “Naruto” is up in the air.
