They cancel Iron Fist but give the piss poor substitute a movie? Urgh!
Yeah, but Zhang Ziyi playing a Japanese character isn't something I don't think would fly now. Same with Gong Li. I mean you could do it, but if it's a big movie people would groan. Especially when they try to speak their non native tongue which is supposed to be native for their character.
A lot of fight fans don’t even care for grappling, I’m just not sure the general audience will be accept it even if done well.
The trouble with grappling in a movie is grappling moves made by people fighting to the death are very decisive very quickly.
With punches, you can buy that the villain is dominating early, and the hero outlasts him and rallies at the end. There are numerous real-world boxing matches where someone gets badly outboxed in the early rounds, but ultimately wins thanks to an iron chin and superior stamina.
With grappling, the villain dominating early means that the hero will have dislocated arms and basically be a flopping version of the Black Knight from the Holy Grail Monty Python movie. You don't really come from behind in the fifteenth round when two grapplers are fighting to the death.
Except that Shang-Chi's comic history has white people in it, particularly from his time at MI:6, so that's really all the "excuse" Marvel needs if they decide to go that route. CRA adapted a book with no major characters who weren't of Asian descent, to the chance WB took was more keeping with the source material.
I would love to see Shang Chi succeed but unfortunately I don't think it will. Hollywood has spent decades banishing Oriental males as a comic relief in movies. It's too hard to beat the stereotypes now and I just don't think there's any Asian lead actor that will be able to bring in the masses. I rather see Marvel pass on this movie.