Having spent almost his entire career working in independent drama, Destin Daniel Cretton was unsure if he was the right person to make the jump into a mega budget Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, before Black Panther‘s Ryan Coogler convinced him that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was the right move.
It would be an understatement to say that it turned out to be the right call, with the 25th installment in the franchise smashing a handful of pandemic-era box office records on its way to a $431 million haul and some of the best reviews for any MCU origin story.
Many more doors have opened as a result of Shang-Chi‘s success, but Cretton’s first move saw him re-team with Disney, after he signed on to executive produce and direct an episodic adaptation of Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese for streaming.
The show follows Jin Wang, a teenager struggling with the rigors of high school life, who somehow ends up embroiled in a battle between warring Chinese mythological gods with the fate of the entire universe at stake. As per Murphy’s Multiverse, American Born Chinese is set to film from February to June of next year, so it could be one of 2023’s hottest tickets on Disney Plus given the combination of high concept premise and proven talent.