All language subtitles for Shang-Chi.And.The.Legend.Of.The.Ten.Rings.2021.XVID

CRETTON: Hi, my name is Destin Cretton,

I am the co-writer
and director of this movie.

CALLAHAM: Hi, my name is Dave Callaham,
and I am the co-writer of the movie.

CRETTON: Dave, have you ever done
a director's commentary before?

CALLAHAM: No, I'm not a director,

so I'm not normally asked to

- sit in, but I appreciate it very much.
- (LAUGHS)

CRETTON: I guess
this wouldn't be a director's...

This'll just be a commentary.

- (LAUGHS)
- CALLAHAM: Yeah.

Have you done a director's commentary
before, Destin, being a director?

CRETTON: No, this is actually my first.

So let's try it.

Let's see what happens.

(WOMAN SPEAKING MANDARIN)

CRETTON: Well, we're starting on a flag.

With the Ten Rings logo,
we could talk about The Ten Rings.

CALLAHAM: Yeah, this is an organisation

that's been set up from the MCU
in the past.

Not this far in the past.

And we are telling a deeper section of
that story for the first time in here.

CRETTON: I mean, I guess we could talk
about, like, the first time...

For some people who are familiar
with the Mandarin in the comics,

he was wearing the Ten Rings
on his fingers.

There was one point in the writers' room

when we were either watching

36th Chamber of Shaolin

- or Kung Fu Hustle or both...
- Kung Fu Hustle.

CRETTON:...and we decided to

take the rings off his fingers
and put them on his wrists.

So Tony Leung...

Tony Leung,
what did you think about Tony Leung

when you found out that we cast him?

CALLAHAM: It's awesome.
He's so legendary

and I wasn't clear on how little
Western films he had done.

- I think zero, right?
- CRETTON: Yeah, there was...

I remember when Jonathan asked me

who I would want to play Wenwu

and my first instinct was Tony Leung.

But I also said,
"There's no way we'll ever get him."

CALLAHAM: Yeah.

CRETTON: And I honestly
still can't believe it.

CALLAHAM: I remember that.
I remember you had to do a call.

He was one of the early people cast,

which was really helpful because we were

seeing mock-ups of him
in costume and stuff

once we had him,
which was really helpful.

CRETTON: Yeah, I feel like

bringing Tony on
was kind of the tone-setter

for the type of movie
that we wanted to make.

He also, that shot of him on that horse

just walking towards the people
that he's about to obliterate...

And that was one of the first shots
that we shot of the movie

and I remember looking at the monitor,

watching him just trot on that horse

in a close-up and thinking,

"I could watch this man's face
for hours."

And it was...

It really was...

I mean, it was just so exciting
to have that be the first thing

that we put on film,

and it really became

the tone-setter for the entire movie.

CALLAHAM: He really is amazing.
I mean, the first time

I saw some of the stuff
you had shot with him,

the sensitivity that he carries,
which is so great because,

obviously, this is a villain
that is not quite as moustache-twirly

or aggressive as maybe you're used to

in some of the comic book
type of properties.

So he just really captures what you were
always talking about from day one.

CRETTON: I mean, we... Oh, yeah, this...

I mean, I guess we could talk about

this moving bamboo forest,

which was

created by our VFX supervisor,

Chris Townsend.

Who has done a lot of
Marvel movies in the past

and it was such a pleasure
to work with him.

(WOMAN SPEAKING MANDARIN)

CRETTON: Fala...
We could talk about Fala,

who is the actor
who plays our Li character.

When we're looking for
the actor to play Li, we...

I mean, it was a big search
because we needed to find somebody

who could not only stand up
to Tony Leung in a scene but own him.

Fala was somebody who we

saw her audition.

She had actually just finished

studying at Juilliard.

And we saw her audition and,

as you can see,
she's such a special actor

and has so much strength behind

every movement, every look.

And when we lined up her gaze
with Tony Leung's, it just felt perfect.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

CRETTON: In our movie, it's...

We have a character, Wenwu,

who has lived for a thousand years

and he would have continued to

just obliterate and chase power

for his own glorification,

and he needed something to stop him.

And Li is that...

Is the first person to really

be able to stop him in his tracks,
to make him realise that

everything he's been chasing
is empty and pointless.

CALLAHAM: The acting here is incredible.

The first time I saw this, I cried.

Because I think it's beautifully done.

But also,
when we wrote this on the page,

it described exactly
what you're seeing here,

which is that it's a fight
that turns into a mutual appreciation

that turns into a bit of a dance,

and then an attraction.

And all these various things are
happening in this one fight sequence,

and I remember when we were writing it
thinking it sounds great.

- But this is such writer BS.
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)

CALLAHAM: At some point,
Justin has to go direct this

and these two people have to

accomplish this on screen.

It's so complicated and I can't believe
how beautifully it turned out.

(LI SPEAKING)

CRETTON: We threw in this shot of

Wenwu and young Shang-Chi,
late in the game

and it actually stuck.

Because it

became a bit of an iconic shot of what

the core of our movie is about.

CALLAHAM: The Great Protector.

CRETTON: Yeah,
what about the Great Protector?

CALLAHAM: I think we'll probably talk
about the Great Protector more in a bit.

This was an idea
that was with us from day one.

CRETTON: Yeah, the Great Protector...

I mean, we always knew that
we're going to have

a dragon in our movie in some way.

And I really love where we landed
on what the dragon represented

and that it wasn't just a flashy dragon
to have in our movie.

That the dragon became rooted
in something a bit more emotional

and more connected to who Shang-Chi is,

and the person that he becomes
by the end of the movie.

CALLAHAM: I don't remember if this is
how we ended up on that name.

But I do remember talking to my mom,

who is Chinese.

When we started this process,

I'm telling her there's probably
going to be a dragon in this movie.

And she was like, okay,
but it has to be a good guy.

And I said, why?

And she said,
because dragons are protectors.

CRETTON: Hmm!
CALLAHAM: I thought okay, good note.

CRETTON: Thanks, Mom.
CALLAHAM: Scratch out "Shang-Chi

"punches a dragon" out of the third act.

- (CRETTON LAUGHS)
- CALLAHAM: Cancel that.

CRETTON: There's Simu.

Finding Simu was a big search as well

and Simu really rose to the top,

not because he can punch
and kick and do a backflip.

He did do a backflip
in his first audition,

but that was not why we chose him.

We chose him
because of his acting purely

and because of this chemistry with Nora.

And honestly, I could not think

of a more perfect person
to play Shang-Chi.

I think Simu has a very unique ability

to cross over between

American and Western culture
and Chinese culture.

He's fluent in Mandarin,

and his background

really spans
both cultures fairly evenly.

So he's a very unique actor

and I feel very lucky to have him.

Most career wins
in all of NASCAR history?

Please get out of the car.

CALLAHAM: Yeah, that code switching
the super important because

it's a theme that we wanted to cover

in the first Asian American-led
Marvel movie.

And obviously Shang-Chi

has to code switch in a way
that is a little more acute

than the average human being
whose father isn't a supervillain.

So it's great that
he was able to do that.

I was getting picked on a lot,

for all the reasons
we all get picked on a lot.

Plus, I had just moved to the U.S...

CRETTON: We keep trying to break us
many stereotypes

as possible in this movie,
one of which is...

Asian females,

there's sometimes a stereotype
that they're not good drivers.

So, in our movie,

Nora's character Katy
is the best driver in San Francisco.

So one by one,
we're breaking those stereotypes.

CALLAHAM: Yeah, she might be
the best driver in the world.

- Honestly.
- CRETTON: Yes, probably.

That's true. You were.

- What?
- I was just in the back seat.

- That's a part of the car.
- That's still a part of the car.

How have you never told me this story?

You know, before she was a lawyer,
your girl was pretty wild.

What happened?

I grew up.

What's that supposed to mean?

Yeah, what's that supposed to mean?

That maybe there's a point where you're
supposed to stop going on joyrides

and start thinking about
living up to your potential.

Please tell me you're kidding, Soo.

SOO: Look,

we're now living in a world

where at any moment
half the population can just disappear.

Life's too short and too fragile.

Katy, you're a valet driver
with an honors degree from Berkeley,

and Shaun can speak,
like, four languages.

CRETTON: One of the things
that I actually

showed in my pitch to get this job

was a scene in a bar with four friends

talking in a bar and I just said,

"Just imagine this scene
with all Asian Americans."

And instantly, it becomes something

that we haven't really seen before
on screen.

SHAUN: driving skills...
KATY: Soo can't even parallel park.

CRETTON:
When I shot that scene on set,

it was really emotional for me.

There's not a ton of emotion
happening in the movie

besides people just having fun.
But I was...

I got really emotional 'cause I thought

these are my friends, this is my life.

And it's the first time I've ever
really seen it on film before.

CALLAHAM: Can you talk
about the song selection

in this karaoke sequence, Destin?

(CRETTON CHUCKLES)

CALLAHAM: Got Old Town Road in there.

I heard
I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, right?

CRETTON: Yes. Yes.
CALLAHAM: Love that.

CRETTON: They were basically
all of my favourite

running tracks that I listen to
every time I go for a jog.

CALLAHAM: I was hoping
those were your karaoke jams.

Your personal karaoke jams.

CRETTON: Some of them are.
Some of them are. (LAUGHS)

We actually started with eight

and we went into the room with them

and we had a roaming camera
and let them go.

And we just chose the highlights

and put them in the movie
for your viewing pleasure.

CALLAHAM: Here's Katy's family,

which has become Shang-Chi's

adoptive family in America.

He's Shaun here, by the way.

He has not revealed his true name.

This was also really critical.

You talked about wanting to do
a version of this scene from day one.

SHAUN:...Funyuns and cigarettes
back to the afterlife?

CRETTON: Yeah,
I think for both Dave and I,

it was really important for us to see

an Asian American family
and how the generations interact.

How you can clearly see the influence

of American culture growing stronger
with each new generation,

and all of that not
only informs the character of Katy

but also informs Shang-Chi
and who he is.

There's also an underlying
emotional story

that's happening
from Shang-Chi's perspective.

And if you watch him
throughout this scene,

the way that it was edited
by Nat and Harry and Elizabeth,

our editors, was finding little moments

where Shang-Chi is clearly
looking at this family

and seeing what he misses,
what he longs for.

What he finds is empty in his life.

So it's a bit of a set-up
of what's to come.

CALLAHAM: So, this entire commentary

is going to turn into me talking about

how a huge percentage
of this finished film

is actually a lot of ideas
were there from day one.

Destin, on the very first time
we were in the room together,

I remember, you said that
you wanted to do a bus fight.

I don't know where that idea came from,
but here it is.

CRETTON: (LAUGHS)
It was actually like...

The idea of this sequence
was in my pitch.

One, I've never done an action sequence
in any movie before.

But I do know what I love,

are action sequences
that are crafted around

a unique location or unique scenario.

And as a what-if scenario in my pitch,

it was, rather than have
two people fighting,

what if a fight broke out
on a runaway bus in San Francisco,

zooming down a hill, that can't stop?

So the stakes are raised tenfold
because of that,

and then it turned into this
really fun sequence that...

Holy shit.

Who are you?

CRETTON:
I can't believe that that tiny idea

turned into this crazy fight.

CALLAHAM: It's great, though,
because at some point

the accordion bus idea came into...

I don't remember where
that came from specifically.

But then once we realised
we're going to chop this bus in half

and that we had this man, Razor Fist,
who has a razor fist for an arm,

it all started...
Cutting the brake line, all these ideas

started to really fall together
pretty easily.

CRETTON: The one thing we wanted
for this fight was to introduce,

the Jackie Chan style

of fight sequences into this movie.

Very loosely inspired
by Jackie Chan movies,

but also also loosely inspired
by Buster Keaton movies.

There's a lot of set-ups and payoffs,
a lot of physical gags in this.

Every time I've tried to drive
a bus, I get yelled at.

CRETTON: Our second-unit director,
Brad Allan,

one of his heroes is Buster Keaton
and I love the way that

these set-ups and payoffs
are sprinkled throughout.

So the story is all told
through physical gags

and movement.

CALLAHAM: Worth pointing out here,
the guy filming this,

he's called Klev in the script.

He is doing a live stream
that comes back later.

He's also in one
of the Spider-Man movies,

so he is now
a recurring character in the MCU.

(ALL YELP)

CALLAHAM: This is awesome.

CRETTON: This sequence
was primarily headed

by fight coordinator Andy Cheng.

He was in Jackie Chan's stunt team.

I mean, he has crazy stories
of doubling for Jackie Chan

on some of the craziest stunts

that we've seen in those movies.

So he was the perfect person
to create this really fun vibe

throughout this fight sequence.

This shot in particular

was very loosely inspired
by a pretty iconic shot from Oldboy,

which is one of my favourite films
and we wanted to play

the climax of this fight sequence out
in a pretty simple oner

that comes out of the bus
and tracks with Shang-Chi

as he makes his way down

to the final beats
of taking out these bad guys.

CALLAHAM: And this was all shot
in a moving bus in San Francisco.

Is that correct, Dustin? In one take.

CRETTON: We had 12 cameras

set up throughout the bus.

It was mainly shot like a documentary.

I'm not sure we can say
that kind of stuff.

We're being sarcastic.

(BOTH CHUCKLING)

CALLAHAM: Here's Katy again,
the best driver in the world.

Just jumps behind the wheel of a bus,
which, very different skill set.

CRETTON: I remember, this moment
we had this major problem,

which is after this whole ordeal,

how does Katy stop this bus?

And we were in San Francisco
location scouting,

and I stood up in the bus
that we were on

and looked back
and I yelled to Brad Allan,

"How do we stop this bus, Brad?

"Can you can you figure out
how to stop the bus?"

And he talked it over
with some of his team

in the back of the bus
and literally three minutes later,

he came up
and he pitched this idea to me.

He said,
"What if there's a garbage truck

"that comes into play

"and Katy ramps up onto a pile of cars
and wedges herself

"between the garbage truck
and the line of cars

"and the the intense friction
between them

"is what takes us to a stop?"

And that's what we do.

Those guys are going
after my sister next,

and I have to get to her first.

You have a sister?

Look, I know this is confusing.

I'll explain it when I get back,
I promise.

No, no.

CRETTON: We've got some...

We've got Kung Fu Hustle on the wall
back there in this scene,

which was one of our favourite movies

and we drew

a lot of inspiration from that movie
in a lot of ways.

CALLAHAM: It's a nice apartment.

CRETTON: Yeah,
Shang-Chi lives out of a garage.

There's clearly a garage door there.

This is the moment that Katy realises
her best friend has been lying to her

over the past 10 or so years
that they've known each other.

It's a big turning point
in their relationship.

I think it's also a big character reveal

of who Katy is
and how supportive she is.

CALLAHAM: Yeah.

CRETTON: She's also choosing
to stick with him.

- (MEN GRUNTING)
- (STICKS CLUNKING)

SHAUN: After my mom died...

CRETTON: There is something
that we are tracking throughout

this training montage of Shang-Chi.

The obvious thing is Shang-Chi
being trained by his dad

and the very complicated relationship

that is being built there

that's a mixture of love and abuse.

But we're also more subtly

tracking his sister Xialing's story

and getting glimpses
of what her life was like,

being pushed into the shadows

as all of the focus
is put on her brother.

CALLAHAM: This is also our first look
at Death Dealer,

in the blue with the mask.

CRETTON: Now,
Death Dealer in the comics was...

His design

was a lot more inspired by skulls.

In our movie, our visual development
supervisor, Andy Park,

and his incredible team
came up with a Death Dealer

that is inspired by Chinese opera masks.

And I think the upgrade

that they gave
Death Dealer is pretty cool.

I can only offer you beef or vegetarian.

BOTH: Um...

- Vegetarian would be great.
- Yeah, same.

- FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Okay.
- Thank you.

So...

CRETTON: This aeroplane joke
was something that

Dave Callaham pitched very early on,

and it's stuck around
all the way to the end.

- (CALLAHAM CHUCKLES)
- CRETTON: We always hate...

I think it was like

we just really hated the expository,

here's the serious exposition
of what my life was like

being raised as an assassin,

and Dave's very smart joke pitch

was to hard cut
to an interruption on the aeroplane

that snaps us back into reality.

I'm sorry about your mom.

CALLAHAM: Yeah,
this killed two birds for us

because you always get these scenes.

All of these movies end up having these
deep backstory expository scenes

which are very hard to write
without them starting to go on,

and sometimes the characters
are having these conversations

in locations like this,
and it seems totally bonkers

that these two people
are having this conversation,

and there's people sitting around
and whatnot.

So this seemed like a fun way
to have fun with that idea.

And it also allowed us to get to Macau,
because we also,

Destin and I, both were concerned about
how characters will suddenly

just appear in the next location
on the other side of the world

without seemingly having
had any conversations at all.

So here we have...
For all those fans of travel in movies.

CRETTON: At one point, didn't we have
a whole sequence

where they were just travelling

and time-jumping through
a 13-hour trip to Macau?

CALLAHAM: Yeah, there's versions
of that conversation

that are much longer, for sure.

I love these shots.

CRETTON: Yeah,
I really love how this turned out.

It was very difficult to shoot
this sequence during COVID times.

It's a combination of a few teams.

Some of it was shot in Sydney.

Some was shot in Macau
and some was shot in Hong Kong remotely.

CALLAHAM: I love the look
on Katy's face there.

That was always something
we wanted for her to present.

Just her excitement at seeing
the vibrancy of this Asian culture

that she's never gotten
to experience in this way.

Just... I love that.

CRETTON: Yeah.

CALLAHAM: This guy's tattoos are based
on my tattoos, I think, right?

CRETTON: I think they're... (LAUGHING)

CALLAHAM: Is that me?
CRETTON: No... You'll laugh about that,

but I actually think I gave a photo
of you to Sue Chan to... (LAUGHING)

CALLAHAM: It was like, "Hey,
can this scumbag look like the writer?"

CRETTON: Ronny Chieng as Jon Jon.

I just love Ronny so much.

Ronny has never looked
like this before in his life.

I remember when I showed him
the photo of the haircut

I wanted to give him

and watched him just use
all of his acting ability

to act like he thought it would be cool.

CALLAHAM: I think it is cool.

CRETTON: He looks great.

- I think he looks great.
- CALLAHAM: Looks really good.

Some fun MCU Easter eggs
during this walk

for the fans.

CRETTON: Spike Face is not one of them.

CALLAHAM: No.
But could be in the future.

CRETTON: Yes.

CALLAHAM: Spike Face,
Disney Plus spinoff.

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

CRETTON: Here we have
one of the Black Widows

from Black Widow

that you may recognise, and...

- What's that other guy?
- CALLAHAM: Fighting...

It's a soldier representing
the Extremis plot line

of Iron Man 3.

And here, a more obvious...
Easter egg is probably not the word,

but this here's the Abomination
fighting Wong,

which got a lot of attention
in the trailer.

You want me to show you how it feels?

CRETTON: Did they name Wong
after Benedict Wong?

CALLAHAM: No, that's his name
in the comics. (LAUGHS)

(CROWD CHEERING)

CROWD: (CHANTING)
Wong! Wong! Wong!

Wong! Wong! Wong!

Go, Wong!

I always bet on Asian.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, look, I'm not
going up there, okay?

- I'm just trying to...
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.

It's too late to back out now.

- You already committed, bro.
- SHANG-CHI: What?

JON JON: You signed
the contract, remember?

Your name's on the roster.

The bets are piling in.

- Really? What's our cut?
- Oh, it's huge.

It doesn't matter.

It matters.

Dude, I saw you fight five assassins

and a giant Romanian
with a razor for an arm

on a moving bus.

This is just one guy.

Just do it. Then we all get paid,

and then I'll help you find
whoever you're looking for.

Come on. You got this.

- JON JON: You got this.
- Don't be nervous.

Thank you.

- KATY: Yeah.
- Yeah.

CRETTON: This fight club is...

It's all real.

This was one of our bigger sets
that Sue Chan built

and you can walk
through the entire thing.

This isn't chopped up
and put in different locations.

You can... This is one giant set

that was all built out of metal
and giant shipping containers.

It was a really beautiful set.

This fight ring is also all real.

JON JON: It's Bus Boy!

(SCATTERED CHEERING)

What happened to your shirt?

(TRADITIONAL DRUM MUSIC
PLAYING ON SPEAKER)

JON JON: And his opponent for tonight,

it's Macau's own fearsome killer...

Xu Xialing!

(CROWD CHEERING LOUDLY)

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

(GRUNTS)

(IN ENGLISH) Wait, wait!

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

JON JON: (IN ENGLISH)
Ooh, that's gotta hurt.

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

CALLAHAM:
Tell us how you cast Meng'er.

Because as far as I understand it,

that she's never been
in a movie before, right?

CRETTON: Meng'er was found by
our casting director, Sarah Finn.

Meng'er was

working in a musical theatre
in Shanghai,

and she sent in an audition,

and there was just something really

playful about the way
that she performed the character

that was really unique,

and we flew her down to Sydney

to play with Simu,

and they're... I mean, to this day,
they are like brother and sister.

Their chemistry is just
so great together.

And Meng'er is... I don't know,
she's a really special actor,

and she was the perfect person

to play this character
that is really a soft child

on the inside
that has been hardened by years

of putting up walls
in order to protect herself.

And Meng'er, I think,
captures that really beautifully.

CALLAHAM: She's great. I love that we're
looking at these two siblings,

arguably, two of the centrepieces,
obviously of the movie.

They're both pretty new
to the world of these blockbuster films,

and you get to watch
these careers blossoming.

It's just one of the things

I think is really exciting
about this movie and special.

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

(DOOR BEEPS)

(IN ENGLISH) Where'd you
get all that money?

CRETTON: This is the moment of the movie
that we start to see

the core theme of our movie unravelling.

And we're seeing these siblings

much later in their life,

in the personas that they created

in order to adapt or protect themselves

ever since a giant tragedy
happened to them,

and that, at its core,

is what this movie is looking at.

We see a family that is broken

and shattered by a tragedy,

and we're seeing all these characters
react to that differently.

And I think the way...
In this particular scene,

the way that Xialing plays it,
I think, is so subtle and layered.

CALLAHAM: It's really lovely to see it.

XIALING: What postcard?

CALLAHAM: It took us a long time,

I remember, to land on exactly
what Xialing had done with her life

and where she was in this moment.

And I think it's great
that we ended up where we did,

where these two kids grew up
under the same circumstances...

Versions of the same circumstances,
and one has run as far away as possible.

And the other, though,
has also run away,

but has simultaneously stepped into
the shoes of her father in a way,

which is an interesting thing
that we all do sometimes.

CRETTON: Do you remember, Dave,

when there is a moment
when Jonathan said...

Our producer, Jonathan Schwartz,
who was really in the room with us

from day one, the writers' room,
day one all the way to the end.

But there was a day that he said,

"What if her club was a fight club?"

Do you remember that?

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

CALLAHAM: We had a lot of problems
until the fight club,

because there... Then after that,

one of the days I remember the most was,

we got very stuck at some point,

I don't remember the specific details

of what was going to happen
in that fight club.

And then one day it was like, "What if
the person he's fighting is his sister?"

CRETTON: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
CALLAHAM: We didn't start there.

Which, when you look back now,

it seems insane that there was ever
any other idea on the table, but...

CRETTON: Yeah.

CALLAHAM:
That opened up the whole story.

And then here we have
the bamboo fight scene,

which I don't remember exactly
when this idea came,

but it was early.

And I remember seeing fight vis
for this early in the writing process.

CRETTON: This was another...

It was another brainstorm as to
what is another environment

that we can put our characters in

that would create a fight
that is just unique.

So, we came up with these ideas
for environments

that our choreographers
could just riff on

and create something really cool from.

We have seen
bamboo scaffolding fights before.

(SINGING HOTEL CALIFORNIA BY EAGLES)
On a dark desert highway

Cool wind in my hair

CRETTON: I think there's one
in 36th Chamber, isn't there?

I'm pretty sure there is one.

CALLAHAM: Yeah, there's a couple of 'em.
Jackie's done them before.

- And there's one in...
- CRETTON: I think Rush Hour has one.

CALLAHAM: Yeah.
CRETTON: But we thought

one of the unique things
that we wanted to add

to the history of
bamboo scaffolding fights,

is putting it really high up in the air
on a skyscraper.

CALLAHAM: I do remember that.

Somebody had shown us in the room

these pictures, right,
of locations where you'll have

this incredible dichotomy
of this incredibly modern structure

that's going up in Hong Kong
and places like that.

But they're still using
bamboo scaffolding

to accomplish that
in a lot of the areas.

That's, I think,
part of what we seized on.

CRETTON: Yeah.

There was a time when

there was going to be a giant explosion
and all that scaffolding

was gonna peel off
and bash into another building.

But we didn't do that.

CALLAHAM: (CHUCKLES) On fire.

CRETTON: (LAUGHING) Yes.
CALLAHAM: Make it simple.

The other cool thing
about this sequence is,

the challenge, really...

My memory of the challenge
was, on the writing side,

that we had the two siblings

the fighting alongside
each other sort of,

but they have different fighting styles

and different philosophies
on how to handle themselves

in this situation,
and we wanted to make sure

that we were demonstrating
the togetherness

but how far they'd grown apart

inside of the story
of the fight, which...

That was, for me, the hard part,

because I didn't have to choreograph it.

CRETTON: But I do think
that was something

that Brad Allan and his team
were so good at,

was really asking over and over,

"What is the context
of the story of the fight?"

What are these characters
going through and what is the fight

telling us about their relationship
or where they are in their life?

And there really is not
a fight sequence in this movie

that is not doing that.

Even this fight here between
Death Dealer and Shang-Chi,

it's not just two people
having a knife fight.

This is a fight between Shang-Chi

and the guy who trained him
as a young man,

who trained him to kill.

And this scene really is about

Shang-Chi fighting himself,
fighting the urge to get back

into who he was as a child
and what he was taught.

And there's a moment in here
when he almost does.

The guy who taught him his aggression,

and he goes for it, and then he stopped.

CALLAHAM:
Before we get into what happens next,

I just want to say, Simu seems
like he can run really fast.

In that previous shot of him
running down the hall,

he looks like he's moving
very, very quickly.

CRETTON: Yeah, every time he was
doing his running scene,

I would look at Simu and just say,
"Just tap into Tom Cruise.

"You just got to go
for the Tom Cruise run."

CALLAHAM:
It's just a really good movie run.

I'm just saying, as a fan of movie runs.

CRETTON: It's a great run.

I think this is, I guess, what you would

technically call the beginning
of our second act.

CALLAHAM: Yeah.

CRETTON: When Shang-Chi
is forced to go back

to the place he started
and face all the things

that he's been running from.

It's also important to remember that,

though this is a story that is
primarily following Shang-Chi,

it's also Xialing's story and we are...

She's going through
very similar emotions that he is.

My son is home.

Take the girls to their room.

CALLAHAM: It was a lot of fun to think
about this fortress, I remember,

because we knew early on that we needed
to conceive of the kind of place

where somebody could have been holed up
for hundreds of years, building power.

So that was cool.

CRETTON: And a base
that he could actually,

believably be orchestrating
all of the things

that the Ten Rings have their hands in
throughout the world.

He said he couldn't look at me...

CRETTON: This scene was really important

for Xialing and Katy to...

We always knew it was really
important to give them a moment.

As the female leads of our movie,
to have to have a moment together.

You started an underground
fight ring in Macau...

CRETTON: This was a pretty important
moment for Xialing as a character.

If my dad won't let me into his empire,

I'm gonna build my own.

Hell yeah.

CRETTON: It's also a bit of a set-up

for where she goes
toward the end of this movie.

(SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(GRUNTING)

CRETTON: That post...

For those of you who are worried

about our young actor's fist,
was made of foam.

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

CRETTON: This shot of Tony
was shot in Hong Kong.

This shot was shot in Los Angeles.

This shot was half shot in Hong Kong
and half shot in Los Angeles.

That shot was shot in Hong Kong.

That's in LA.

Hong Kong.

...you have to show me
you're strong enough to carry them.

CALLAHAM: In retrospect, I wish you had
done this for the entire commentary.

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

CRETTON: LA.
Now, to blow your mind, Dave,

the background
of all those shots, Sydney.

(BOTH LAUGH)

CALLAHAM: Incredible. The future is now.

This was like the other
incredibly critical sequence

that we always knew from day one
had to happen in this movie,

the family dinner.

CRETTON: This family dinner is,
in a lot of ways,

a mirror opposite
of the family breakfast scene

that we have in Act 1 of the movie
in Katy's house.

And this is the emotional set-up

where, if you're watching

Simu's performance in that Act 1 scene,

the payoff to that is here where

all of the family dynamics
that he has buried inside him

comes out.

This is also, I think,

the moment in the movie that we

really see who Wenwu is.

One thing we haven't really talked about

is the baggage that that character

carried into the writing process,

and what we were battling
from the get-go.

Dave was on this movie
even before I came in.

What did you think of that?

CALLAHAM: Well, yeah. So just to get
into that a little bit, in the comics,

Shang-Chi, at one point, initially

was the son of a character
called Fu Manchu,

which is an obviously deeply problematic
stereotypical character

that was borrowed
from previous storytelling.

And then Marvel changed
that character to the Mandarin.

Who became very well-liked
and known among comic book fans

and then eventually that character

became a character
called Zhuang Zhou, I believe.

But all of them were depicted in a way
that wasn't particularly helpful,

or it was always a bit problematic.

And so even when we knew

that we were going to be painting

an entirely new picture
of this character...

He was going to be named Wenwu,

he was going to be
a three-dimensional character

that had really
no relationship whatsoever

with those previous iterations.

Part of the baggage that we inherited
was that he was still

the leader of The Ten Rings,
which meant inside of the MCU canon,

in Iron Man 3 he had been
referred to as the Mandarin,

which is a name that itself
is considered problematic

and is not particularly helpful
to any of us making this movie.

And so we had a lot of conversations,

Destin and I especially,
about how do we account for the stuff

that's been put before us,
but set that record straight

and come up with a storyline
that allows Wenwu to breathe

as this three-dimensional character
and simultaneously

establish why he would have been
called the Mandarin by certain people.

And what we ended up with
was a version where

it's a name that
had been applied to him,

but primarily by people who probably

didn't understand him,
or his culture as well.

And it's never a name that I suspect

that he ever
would have chosen for himself.

CRETTON: When I was talking to Tony
about the character,

the Wenwu character,
there was a moment on set

when he told me...

We started talking about whether

Wenwu has the ability

to love, genuinely love his family

and Tony emphatically said, "Yes."

He said Wenwu

genuinely, deeply loves
not only his wife but also his kids.

But he said his problem
is he doesn't know how.

And when Tony told me that,

it's like this character
just clicked into place.

And when you watch Tony's
performance through that lens,

it really makes so much sense,
that this man

is not necessarily evil.

He is lost and broken

and doing things
that arguably are very evil.

But I think the way Tony played him
is that

rooted in every evil deed

is this pain that is a result
of a lost love.

CALLAHAM: That's probably the thing that
differentiates this character the most

from anything that we've
ever seen in the comics as well.

Because any of those characters

that have been depicted
as Shang-Chi's father

have always been... Moustache-twirling
might not be the exact right word,

but are very arch, very supervillainy.

Love is not a characteristic
that I ever saw

in any of those books
in those characters,

and so that's a thing
that I think really

sets him apart.

CRETTON: Yeah,
I really relate to Tony's Wenwu.

CALLAHAM: This sequence...
CRETTON: This is really cool.

CALLAHAM: This is awesome.
I don't know how you did it.

CRETTON: I don't know how...

This is Chris and his amazing team

of visual effects artists
who are working

on each of these moments.

I mean, they're scattered
throughout the world.

The number of people
who worked on these sequences

is mind-boggling

and this is one of the first
sequences that we worked on,

and it actually could have been

a really lame, expository moment.

But it turned into something
that is really visually beautiful

and sets us up for a lot
of what's to come in the movie.

CALLAHAM: I remember
that being really challenging

because we knew that we're sticking
these pendants into the dragon's eyes

and that information
was going to be revealed.

But the manner in which that information

would be revealed
was a real big question mark for us

for a long time
until those guys got involved.

CRETTON: Yeah,
because Chris, from the beginning,

because he's worked
on so many movies with...

Chris was the VFX supervisor
for Captain America,

and he has worked on
so many Marvel movies since.

His one request from the beginning
for this moment was,

"Can we please not do a hologram?"

And we could not figure out how else
to do this moment without a hologram

until Chris came up with the idea,

"What if it was a water hologram?"

And we said, "Great." (CHUCKLES)

Well, this is a big turning point
in the movie where

Wenwu realises
that his kids aren't going to be

coming on the ride with him,
or believe what he's doing,

and throws them in prison.

It's also the first reveal
that we have that

Wenwu truly believes that his wife is

speaking to him and calling to him from

wherever she is trapped.

Was that idea something that

we discovered in the edit or in
the shooting of... Do you know, Dave?

Was that in the script?

CALLAHAM: That he was
hearing the actual voice?

Yeah, we ended up with that
in the pages at some point because...

The general idea of it
was always in place,

that he believed that his wife was...

He was capable of saving her
at some point,

and that was always his motivation.

The manner in which

that information was presented to him,

we went through
a lot of different iterations.

- Literally hearing a voice.
- CRETTON: Yeah.

CALLAHAM: Imagining it,
not hearing a voice.

CRETTON: It was one of the challenges,
really getting into Wenwu's head

and what he really believes, and...

It was one of the underlying

metaphors of the movie
and are connected to The Ten Rings

and what they represent

and how they are connected to,
not only Wenwu's obsession with power,

but also just his addiction.

And how they act as a veil

that is keeping him from
really seeing the reality around him.

Now we come to

a pretty big reveal of the movie.

CALLAHAM: Here he is.

"Wake Duncan with thy knocking.

"Oh, I would'st though could'st."

CALLAHAM: So this is...

Trevor Slattery, a character
that we first met in Iron Man 3.

He was initially presented
in the film as the Mandarin.

And then we learn, in a great twist,
that he is simply a oafish British actor

who has been hired
to portray the Mandarin.

He obviously has an association with
The Ten Rings because of that movie,

and because of the great short
All Hail the King

that Drew Pearce
directed after that film,

which showed Trevor in jail,
and eventually being broken out of jail,

presumably by the person
whose identity he had stolen,

which in this movie
is revealed to be Wenwu,

and that is why he is in a dungeon

- in this fortress.
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)

CALLAHAM: We knew we wanted to use him
if we could get him.

Very early in the process,
right, Destin? He just seemed so fun.

CRETTON: Yeah, and we actually did talk
to Drew about the direction

that we were taking the character
and we spoke to Sir Ben at length.

And Sir Ben really loved the idea

of a Trevor who has
used his time behind bars

and in a dungeon
to really turn his life around.

And this is a version of Trevor who is

extremely positive

and really enjoying life.

CALLAHAM: It looks like a Manchester
United scarf back there,

which is interesting
since he's from Liverpool.

So we should talk about Morris.

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

CALLAHAM: Morris.

I mean, where do we start here?

This was also something
that we talked about

before we ever even pitched Kevin
the final version

of what we were going
to attempt to write.

Should we talk about
the origin of Morris, Destin?

CRETTON: Yes, I'm not sure...

CALLAHAM: Should we not?
CRETTON: I mean...

CALLAHAM: Is he a mystery that is...
CRETTON: Well, Morris.

I mean, I think we should...

Morris was a loose...

Was originated from a loose sketch
that was up on our wall.

Our mood board wall.

And we initially pitched the idea
up to Kevin

of a six-legged creature

with wings and no face.

And we thought it would get
stomped on pretty quickly.

But Kevin said go for it.

And so we did.

And I think really early on,

in the very beginning,
Dave and I, we made a deal

- that if...
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)

CRETTON: If Morris made it all the way
to the final cut of this movie,

you would get a tattoo of Morris
somewhere on your body.

CALLAHAM: This is true. This is true.

Yeah. We...

The picture that we had on the wall
was really ridiculous.

I remember, Destin...
The first day you walked into that room,

you looked at it and you were like,
"What is that?"

- That's in the movie.
- (CRETTON CHUCKLES)

CALLAHAM: And we all laughed
and we worked out

a way that it might end up in the movie,

and then I do remember very specifically

I had made that crack about how,

"This thing's never gonna
end up in the movie.

"I'll get a tattoo of it if it does."

And then I was pitching
the story to Kevin

and I got to the point
where we're going to bring Morris,

and I pointed to the picture
and I just saw this look on his face.

Kevin, if he doesn't like stuff,
is still super polite about it

and he never really makes you feel bad
about your insane idea.

But when he does like stuff,
it's very clear.

And I just remember looking over
and he was smiling, and I just thought,

"Oh, crap. This thing's going
to end up in the movie."

- (BOTH LAUGH)
- CALLAHAM: And I...

As of this recording, I have not

procured that tattoo,
mostly because of COVID issues.

But I will do so.

And Destin will film it
for your entertainment.

CRETTON: Oh, that'll be... I can't wait.

Morris is also... Little-known fact.

Morris is named after

my wife and my dog, who is a Dachshund

whose name is Morris.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(TYRES SQUEALING)

KATY: What's happening back there?

SHANG-CHI: Doing my best.

AUTOMATED VOICE:
Scan hand print for gate access.

- Hurry up!
- SHANG-CHI: I'm trying!

Scan hand print for gate access.

Shaun!

Access approved.

(GASPS)

(PANTING)

(DOOR OPENS)

They will come back
once I bring her home.

Prepare the men for war.

Yes, sir.

CRETTON: This next scene

was such a pleasant surprise.

It was first

a fairly different version
of this scene, which was...

The first draft of the scene

- Was talking about Trevor's...
- CALLAHAM: Don't, don't.

CRETTON: Where Trevor's...
CALLAHAM: Don't tell anybody.

CRETTON:...birthplace... (CHUCKLES)

Where Trevor's initial inspiration
for becoming an actor was.

And then we tossed it over to Dave,

who did,

basically, the version of the scene
that you see.

And I laughed so hard
when I read these pages. (LAUGHS)

CALLAHAM: Thank you.

CRETTON: And it stuck ever since.

CALLAHAM: This was definitely
an "a-ha" moment for me.

I have to say, writing Trevor
is an amazing experience.

I'm sure you feel the same way, Destin,
because you...

The weirder...

It's very tempting to just go
completely off the rails,

especially because in Iron Man,
when he's on drugs,

he can never finish a thought
without diverging,

and so it becomes tempting
to do that with him.

But in this case,

I remember having

the Planet of the Apes idea
and then desperately googling

when that movie came out to see
if I was actually going to be able to

make it work, and just feeling so happy.

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

CALLAHAM: So happy and then not knowing,
are you guys going to want to use it?

Will Sir Ben think it's ridiculous?

CRETTON: Sir Ben loved it
and he played it so well.

For me, it's not only
a really great long joke

with a great payoff, but...

To me, it's a combination of the joke
and the reveal

of what really makes Trevor tick,
and the reveal of his soft heart

and his relationship with his mom.

I don't know.
There's so much connected to it

that makes that joke really land
on multiple levels.

Let's talk about this moving maze.

So we got the set-up of the moving maze
in that water map.

And this is the payoff.

This is like a...

According to... I wish I knew the...

The statistics

of how difficult this simulation was
for Chris and his team.

But I know how difficult it was,
'cause every time we changed an edit

or I asked,

"Could we make the dust more intense?

"Or have the trees move
in a slightly different way?"

The answer was typically a big groan.

Because it was so difficult to create

all of those moving elements
in the VFX world,

but I think it turned out pretty fine.

CALLAHAM: It's awesome. I love the way
that the ground is buckling,

and there's just...
Everything is getting kicked up.

And there's that scarf again.

CRETTON: I also love that Razor Fist
drives an electric car.

(ALL GRUNT)

(ALL PANTING)

(MORRIS COOS)

Morris says, "Great job, everyone."

Now, all we have to do
is go through that waterfall,

and we're pretty much there.

(SHANG-CHI SIGHS)

CRETTON: Did that waterfall
look real to you? 'Cause it wasn't.

CALLAHAM: Oh, yeah.
That does look really good.

CRETTON: Apparently, according to Chris,
the team that did that waterfall,

they are the best water team
on the planet.

CALLAHAM: I love that.
I love specialisation.

(WHOOSHING)

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

(ENTHRALLING MUSIC PLAYING)

CRETTON: Ta Lo is referenced
in the Marvel comics.

TREVOR: I think those birds are on fire.

- (MORRIS CHITTERING)
- Really? Oh.

Morris says it's normal.

They're old mates of his.

CRETTON: Took it in a slightly different
direction from the comics

and gave it a little more context.

(PUP YAPPING)

(MORRIS CHITTERING AND CHEERING)

(ALL CHITTERING AND CHEERING)

- (KATY GASPS)
- (CAR HALTS)

That's a weird horse.

What's it looking at me for?

(SNORTS)

(SOFT TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(MUSIC RISING)

(CREATURE GRUNTING)

(GROWLS)

(MORRIS CHITTERING)

CALLAHAM: So here's... You can see
the two Fu dogs in that shot.

Fu dogs are

pretty traditional figures
in Chinese and other Asian mythologies.

They are always in twos,

and they typically
are set on both sides of a place

as guardians of that place.

Fun to get to see them

realised in this way.

CRETTON: If you look closely,
you can see

that they are
slightly different colours.

The darker shade,

I'm not even going to guess

which one is the male,
and which is the female. (CHUCKLES)

But one is a male
and the other is a female.

Guang Bo.

The commander-in-chief of the Ta Lo Army
is played by Master Yuen Wah.

Who you might recognise
from Kung Fu Hustle.

He's one of my favourite characters
in Kung Fu Hustle.

And he is such a legend
and a joy to work with.

As is Michelle Yeoh.

- (LAUGHS)
- CALLAHAM: That was... There you go.

A good segue.

CRETTON: One thing people may not

realise about Michelle...

Not only how much of
an incredible actor she is

and how much depth she brings
to her performances,

she's also just really silly and fun.

She was such a joy to have on set.
She really

just brought so much life to the set
every time she stepped on it.

Made the movie-making process so fun.

YING NAN: Our people have been
here for over 4,000 years,

preparing for something
we hope will never happen.

CALLAHAM: She's such a critical
character here, too, because

Shang-Chi and Xialing don't get
to interact with their mother

as adults inside of the movie.

Obviously, we see them
in flashbacks as children,

so Nan represents

the connection that they have
to their mother.

A lot of elements
that remind them of her.

Is he wearing the rings?

SHANG-CHI: He hasn't
taken them off since she died.

CRETTON: Dave, what did you think of
the visuals of Ta Lo

when you first saw the village itself?

Did it feel in line with what you had...

CALLAHAM: Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's beautiful. It's so much
more colourful than I imagined,

not because I imagined
something super dark, I just...

I love all the different colours
that we brought into it,

or that you brought into, excuse me.

And that gate.

I always loved the idea of that
looming gate that looks over everything

and has this vibe to it.

Talk about this, though.

Because this came in fairly late
and the visuals are really cool.

CRETTON: Yeah...

This backstory to Ta Lo,

and the purpose of why Ta Lo exists,

I think, is...
There's a small mention in this moment

that Michelle talks about Ta Lo

not just being the village
that we see in our movie.

That Ta Lo extends far beyond.

Far beyond the shores of their village,

and that there are...

Ta Lo is a region, Ta Lo has cities

and technology that far surpasses
anything that we see on Earth

or in our realm.

This portion or this village of Ta Lo

has a bit of a monk-ish mentality
where they have

set aside technology and modern advances

for the single purpose
that they are here to serve,

which I think that was really
important context to give to Ta Lo,

that they're not just this

village of people who are holding

sticks and shields.

(KATY GASPS)

Oh.

CALLAHAM: Yeah, there's a much
wider world around it, I think,

that we hint at,
which is really exciting.

What? Okay.

CRETTON: It is really exciting
to be able to explore that one day.

CALLAHAM: Yeah,
good luck to whoever does that.

CRETTON: Yeah, good luck.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

Let's go see your mother.

CALLAHAM: This is like the badge
of Marvel writers.

Every time I read an interview with
another one of them.

They're all great, but a lot of them
at this point are like,

"Yeah, at some point that's going to be
someone else's problem.

"I just did what I did."

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

CALLAHAM: Like The Ten Rings
became our problem.

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

It's like every time I get
moderately good at something,

I just quit and start something new.

CALLAHAM: I love this.

CRETTON: It's really fun writing
open-endedly like that, right?

CALLAHAM: I think both ends of it
are super fun.

I don't know how you feel
about this, Destin,

but I really like
problem-solving writing,

when someone has already

laid something out in front of you.
In our case,

the history of The Ten Rings
that we inherited,

and now you're playing
the game of how do we

weave that story in with ours.

I like that kind of writing.

It's super fun,
and then, yeah, you're right.

At the end, you can just say,
"Now you deal with it."

CRETTON: You ever see that documentary,
that Lars von Trier documentary,

The Five Obstructions?

CALLAHAM: No. What's that about?
CRETTON: Well,

he basically finds what he considered
to be the perfect short film.

And he tracks down the director.

He remembers the short film
from ages ago

when he was a young filmmaker.
He tracks down the director,

finds out the director hasn't done
anything since that short film

and has been stuck
in a creative slump since then.

So then Lars von Trier creates
five obstructions for him

to basically replicate his same
perfect short film five different times.

But every time he gives him
a very big obstruction.

One is like, he can't use dialogue.

One, every shot has to be
no longer than a second, I believe.

Anyway, he has all these obstructions.

And it not only

helped force this director

to make really interesting versions
of this short film,

it just got him
out of his creative slump.

All to say, I also love obstructions.

I think they're very helpful.

(BOTH LAUGH)

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

(STIRRING MUSIC PLAYING)

(IN ENGLISH)
Guang Bo, you saw that?

That was tight!

(SOFT FOLK MUSIC PLAYING)

My mother was the only one
who could beat him.

CRETTON: This sparring match
between Michelle Yeoh and Simu,

between Nan and Shang-Chi,

was a very important one
to nail tonally.

Because obviously, neither of them
are trying to harm or kill each other.

But Nan is very clearly

trying to teach Shang-Chi a lesson

and tear down his pride a little bit
to open him up

to hear what she needs to tell him.

This was really beautifully
choreographed by Junchang,

who really found a pretty amazing,

pretty great balance
between the playfulness

that Nan brings to it.

But also you'll see the transition here

when it goes from conflict

to a mentor really dancing...

Leading the dance with her student.

And then you start to see a shift
when Shang-Chi starts to catch on

and tap into some of the things
that Nan is teaching him.

One of things to remember
is that Nan isn't teaching him

something he has never
encountered before.

She's reminding him of things
that were taught to him

when he was a child by his mom,

which I think helped us

with fact that Shang-Chi
is learning it so quickly.

CALLAHAM:
This is also a little bit about...

A little bit of what you were talking
about at the beginning of the movie,

where Wenwu and Li are fighting.

Where some of those moves and techniques
that you saw in that fight,

this is where you start
to see them come back,

in a couple of these sequences.

CRETTON: Yeah. A lot of the techniques

that Li was using
in the beginning were...

YING NAN: It is all
a part of who you are.

CRETTON: The idea
that the Great Protector

lends it its power to everybody in Ta Lo

is threaded throughout this movie,

so you'll see hints of that throughout.

CALLAHAM: I'd like to have this office.

This is my vibe.

CRETTON: Oh, yeah?
CALLAHAM: Yeah.

CRETTON: I love that head.

CALLAHAM: Mm-hmm.

CRETTON: Just like that
human head there.

And that head in the background, too.

It's pretty cool.

CALLAHAM: The emotion here
in Tony's face blows me away.

CRETTON: It's such a simple moment.

This is one of my favourite scenes.

Even though we wrote it together,

it was not one of my favourite scenes
on the page.

But once Tony lended
his performance to it,

it became one of my favourite scenes
in the movie.

(LI SPEAKING MANDARIN)

CRETTON: There was a lovely surprise
that was discovered

in the editing room

that really tied

Wenwu's struggle, inner struggle,

to his son's inner struggle.

So that this flashback here,
which is the ultimate reveal

of what happened to Shang-Chi's mother,
Wenwu's wife, Li.

It's almost like a shared flashback
between the two of them.

It's implied that it's the thing
that both of them

aren't only thinking about right now
in the movie,

and the moment in the movie.

But it's implied that this is the thing
that they are constantly thinking about.

I love the way Fala played this scene.

She's just so

soft and tender

with Shang-Chi,

and then when she
turns to face her enemy,

there's so much strength in that turn.

CALLAHAM: It's also worth pointing out,

I'm sure the people that have watched
the movie have noticed this,

but this space
that they're in as a family

is the same space that the Mandarin...
Excuse me.

This space that they're in as a family

is the same space that Wenwu,

as a warlord, inhabits
before and after Li comes into his life.

And if I'm not mistaken,
the difference is

there's a lot more plant life
and vegetation, just life in general,

inhabiting the space
when she is with them.

And it becomes
a cold, barren place when she's not.

CRETTON: Yeah, it was really an amazing

jigsaw puzzle that Sue Chan

and our AD, our assistant director,
Jeff Okabayashi, put together

was scheduling the transformation
of this one set

over a thousand years of transformation.

So pretty, pretty amazing to see.

Every time you see a completely
different version of this set,

it was actually on the same stage
going through that transformation.

YOUNG SHANG-CHI: Mama.

(BREATHES SHAKILY)

CRETTON: One person
I haven't talked about

was working with Bill Pope,
our director of photography.

Bill is a legend in his own right.

He not only was the cinematographer

for The Matrix
and the entire Matrix trilogy,

he has also worked on a lot
of Edgar Wright's movies,

including one of my faves,
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

He also has worked in the MCU before

with Spider-Man 2.

And he did Clueless, did you know that?

CALLAHAM: I did not.

- Also a legendary film.
- CRETTON: I know. I love Clueless.

- This scene...
- CALLAHAM: This is my favourite scene.

CRETTON: This scene
in particular is really...

I think it's a great example of
what it's like to work with Bill Pope.

Because he is not only
looking for the coolest camera angle

or where to flaunt himself
in what he does.

He's always looking at it
from a character standpoint,

and for this scene,
we were trying to figure out

how we could shoot this scene
differently than other fight sequences

And it was Bill
in a brainstorming session

that said, "How about
we never let the camera

"leave Shang-Chi's perspective?"

So that the fight takes place completely
from the POV of young Shang-Chi.

We leave the fight as it's happening.

We see glimpses of it in the reflection

while we're also experiencing it

through young Shang-Chi's face
and performance.

It was really difficult to do.

It required a lot of
intricate collaboration

between Bill Pope
and what we were shooting

and Chris Townsend

and quite a bit of VFX had to happen
in order to pull that shot off.

But I really, really love
how it turned out.

And it really is an anchor

to the dark side of Shang-Chi's past

and the root of where
a lot of his pain birthed from.

We will rebuild The Ten Rings
to what it once was.

CRETTON: Our gaffer
or lighting technician, Reg Garside,

who works primarily in Sydney...

This was the first time
that Reg and Bill Pope

have worked on a movie
since doing The Matrix trilogy.

So this is a pretty momentous occasion

for the two of them,

coming back together
since doing The Matrix.

And I was like

just a little kid with wide eyes
watching the two of them work together.

They have such a cool shorthand

in creating looks for each scene

that are really lovely, like this scene.

CALLAHAM: This is also a good place
to give a shout-out to Andrew.

Let's give a shout-out to Andrew.

You're only hearing my voice
and Destin's voice.

But we had a secret weapon
in the writing of this movie,

which was our third co-writer,
Andrew Lanham,

who came in and was critical
in getting us over a lot of humps,

and especially a lot of this stuff
you're seeing here in the third act

and the stuff that you'll continue
to see in the third act.

Andrew really
helped us all through at times

where we were stretched pretty thin.

- So, what up, Andrew?
- CRETTON: What up, Andrew?

Andrew came in, flew out to Sydney,

and became the man on the ground

while Dave was in LA.

So, I was prepping a lot of these scenes

while Dave and Andrew
were bouncing ideas back and forth

and Andrew was relaying

the constant changes and obstacles
that are happening during prep time

to Dave to give context
on how we can shift

and adjust to create scenes
that are shootable.

CALLAHAM: That's the tricky part
about filmmaking, isn't it, Destin,

that you eventually
have to shoot the movie.

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

CRETTON: Shoot the movie within...

Much more than five obstructions

that are put in front of you
to shoot, though. (LAUGHS)

I think Simu did such
a beautiful job in this moment.

And Nora.

Nora's performance in this
as a genuine, caring,

loving friend is something

that you don't really see
too much in film,

and I really love what she does, and...

I also really love
what Simu does in that scene

and how vulnerable he gets.

CALLAHAM: Nora has an amazing ability.

I mean, Simu does as well, but Nora's
been doing this a little bit longer,

so I think she's more known
for her comedy.

But she does have
this incredible ability

to be able to do comedy
like that, and then

transform into this
intensely empathetic character actor

inside of the same scene.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

CALLAHAM: I want to
throw in here a little detail.

Credit to Jonathan Schwartz,
the producer, and Destin.

I had this idea that
I'd never let go of in the room

that Wenwu, in addition to this army,

would also have
a couple of giant praying mantises...

- (CRETTON LAUGHING)
- CALLAHAM:...that he had been raising

at his fortress.

I don't know why I had that idea.

This sounds like a joke,
but it's not a joke.

And I was pressing those two
on this idea constantly.

CRETTON: There was a praying mantis
in the comics.

CALLAHAM: Right. And I just thought,
okay, and then he'll bring them to Ta Lo

and they'll fight the Fu dogs,
it'll be great.

To everyone else's credit,
they literally never took me seriously,

not once, despite me arguing for it.

So, I just wanted to say, rest in peace
to my giant praying mantises.

(CRETTON LAUGHING)

CALLAHAM:
We'll get them in there somewhere.

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

(IN ENGLISH) Let me pass.

We cannot do that.

(ALL GRUNT)

CALLAHAM: We should also
probably talk about

the designs on those rings a little bit.

I remember this conversation
happening really early

in terms of The Ten Rings fighting
with more traditional weapons

that have been modernised,
which was a pretty cool idea.

Burn it down.

(ALL GRUNTING)

(GROANING)

- (COMMANDS IN MANDARIN)
- (FIGHTERS YELLING)

CRETTON: Yeah, The Ten Rings,
if you watch closely

throughout the opening montage,

they were fighting
with these hook swords

thousands of years ago.
We would see the hook swords

evolve and become these
modern versions of the hook swords.

Stop him!

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

CRETTON: This moment,
I really love going from...

In the sound design,
going from the intensity of that battle

to this really quiet standoff
between father and son

that really is modelled after

a lot of classic Western standoffs.

This is really
the first moment in the movie

where Shang-Chi and Dad

talk about the source of their pain.

And we hear for the first time

what Wenwu really thinks of his son

and where his frustration comes.

...when they came for her,
and you did nothing.

You stood at a window
and watched her die!

(BREATHING SHAKILY)

(SHANG-CHI GRUNTS)

(GRUNTING)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

She was gone...

CRETTON: There's a lot
of incredible work done here

from our sound team at Skywalker.

Our supervising sound editors,
Katy Wood and J.R. Grubbs,

and our rerecording mixers,
Onnalee Blank and Lora,

they worked tireless hours

to create the sound design
for this movie,

and some of my favourite moments
of the movie

are when they chose to use silence to

really assist these emotional beats.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

CRETTON: They really did some
incredible work in Ta Lo because,

basically, every sound in Ta Lo
was created.

They never used any background source

that was real birds or regular

animals that you might hear.

Everything was created for the...

It's supposed to take place
in another dimension.

So, every sound that you hear
in the third act of this movie was

hand-sourced and edited and crafted

by somebody at Skywalker Sound.

(GRUNTING)

(RATTLING)

(GRUNTS)

(RATTLING)

CRETTON: This is one of my
favourite sounds of the movie.

It's the sound
of all these flapping scales

as Wenwu punches them.

(SCREECHING)

- (WENWU PUNCHES)
- (RATTLING)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(ALL GRUNTING)

(DISTANT SCREECHING)

(GASPS)

(SCREECHING)

CRETTON: Here come our little...
What did we call these things?

CALLAHAM: Soul Suckers.

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

CRETTON: They're...

I'm not sure what they're...

I mean, they became the army

of the Dweller-in-Darkness.

The Dweller-in-Darkness' minions.

CALLAHAM:
They're pretty gross, Destin.

CRETTON: Yeah.

CALLAHAM: That, especially.
That effect, right?

I don't think I was prepared for...

CRETTON: There's something
really gross about

a flesh-coloured octopus demon.

(CALLAHAM LAUGHS)

CALLAHAM: Yeah. They have faces, too,

which I'm not sure if I remembered.

CRETTON: I love Florian's delivery
of this line. It's just so perfect.

It's the first time that we really see
Razor Fist's humanity.

We see that Razor Fist
is also a vulnerable person

who is capable of,

one, cracking a joke, and two,

being scared and switching sides.

RAZOR FIST: To the lake!
Let's go! Let's go!

Hey, where's your brother?

I was hoping you knew.

CALLAHAM: How'd you do this?

CRETTON: All of this started
as an experiment.

We initially wanted to shoot Shang-Chi
in a pool underwater.

But we knew it would just...

We didn't really have the time,
and it would be a real pain

because Simu would have
to hold his breath for a long time.

So it started as an experiment where

we put him on a harness

and shot him
in extra slow-mo on a stage,

and Bill and Reg did some
really incredible lighting

that made it feel like we're underwater
and we shot it at a really high speed.

So, he was in extra slow-mo,
blew wind on him,

and we tried it as a test
to see if it could look like

it was actually shot underwater.

And it looked really good.

So that's how we ended up
shooting the entire thing.

So all of this,
all that lighting right there was...

Reg had this rig that he put
above Shang-Chi, above Simu,

and it was actual...
Like, basically an aquarium of water

that light was shining
through onto Simu.

CALLAHAM: Oh, cool.

CRETTON: And so all of those reflections

were actual reflections from real water.

CALLAHAM: And then, the bubbles
and the water effects were

from that same award-winning water team?

CRETTON: Different award-winning
water team.

CALLAHAM: Oh, wow.

CRETTON: Most of the VFX
in the third act,

almost all of the VFX
in the third act were done by Weta,

who some of you may know did

all of VFX for The Lord of the Rings,

and many other amazing movies.

We were very, very lucky to have them
for this section of the movie.

One member of their team was known as

the best dragon guy in the business.

CALLAHAM: Oh! Good timing.

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

CALLAHAM: And here's our...
I love the moss. I keep saying I love...

I just like telling you things
I like about your movie.

But I really like the moss...

The algae or the moss or the growth
on the Great Protector's horns.

Just these little details...

CRETTON: It's amazing
with character development

in a VFX process,
how much back and forth

and meticulous notes it takes
to get to a place.

Like, how much moss should be
on that dragon?

There was a point where there was
so much moss on that dragon

that she looked like a green dragon.

And we're like... She looked sick.
(CHUCKLES)

- CALLAHAM: I remember that part.
- (CRETTON LAUGHING)

CALLAHAM: I feel like this is
a part of the process

that would be really interesting
for people to see at some point.

But they present hundreds
of versions of these things,

the weapons and the costumes and stuff.

Some of them are so minorly different
from one another

that you can't even tell.

And trying to make the right call,
it seems impossible at times.

She's not back there, Dad.

Get out of my way, boy.

CRETTON: It's extra impossible
when you're someone like me

who has never made a movie of this size,

even remotely close to this size,

and then being presented with options

from some of the best artists
in the world,

and every option looks pretty amazing.

And it's really hard for me

not to just say "Great"
every single time.

The result of that would be

a movie that isn't cohesive.
And so, that's the challenge.

Everything is going to look great.

The challenge is
trying to keep everything

looking like it belongs
in the same movie.

CALLAHAM: Right.

I do remember of one of those meetings
when we were looking at

the dragon jacket that Simu wears,

that Shang-Chi wears in this sequence.

And there was different piping
and different...

These costumes all have to be
designed in a way

that the actors
can get in and out of them,

which doesn't sound like much,
but they don't have

front zippers and whatnot visibly.

And you and I were staring
at those for a while.

I couldn't even tell the difference
at some point, and I do remember Kevin

just standing up at one point,
pointing to one, and he's like, "This.

"But the red needs to be
two ticks brighter."

(CRETTON CHUCKLES)

CALLAHAM: And we're like, "Great!"
And he was right.

And it was one of those many moments

where you and I were like,
"This is a guy who

"has been doing this,
knows how to do this,

"can see these things
in ways that we can't."

I thought it was so cool.

CRETTON: Kevin is really cool.

These flashbacks, I guess we never...

The way that the flashback
turned out in the final cut of the movie

of the movie was actually something that

was pushed to a certain extent
in the scriptwriting phase,

but was pushed even more
in the editing phase.

There was always

the plan to have callbacks
to the flashbacks with Shang-Chi

when he's underwater with the dragon.

But because of that element
being introduced

in the scriptwriting phase,

we were able to play with it even more

and tease out the flashbacks
throughout the movie

so they almost became
a parallel storyline

to Shang-Chi's present-day story.

That moment

when Wenwu punches
Shang-Chi to the ground...

This whole father-son fight

was the brainchild of

two really important members
of Brad Allan's team,

Junchang and Chris Cowan,
who we've talked about before.

They together choreographed

the first Wenwu versus Li fight.

And they also choreographed

the father versus son fights,

which were very important
to keep together

because if you look at both fights
back to back,

there's a lot of set-ups
and payoffs between the two,

and this final fight here was...

There were a lot of inspirations, too,

taken from Chinese and Asian anime...

You'll definitely see some references

pulled from Dragon Ball Z, which is

one of our childhood favourites,

including mine.

You might see a reference pulled from

the Kamehameha of Dragon Ball Z.

(LI'S VOICE ECHOES LOUDLY)

(SCREECHES)

(SCREECHES LOUDLY)

CRETTON:
And here's the Dweller-in-Darkness.

CALLAHAM: Also gross.

(CRETTON LAUGHS)

(ROARING)

CRETTON: Character-wise, what I love
about the Dweller-in-Darkness is...

Not just that it's a big, scary monster.

It is the...

The physical representation
of Wenwu's blindness.

And when he looks at that thing
straight in the face

and they

meet eye-to-eye,

except I guess the Dweller
doesn't have eyes,

but when they're looking directly
at each other,

I think Wenwu is finally

looking at
all the stupid mistakes he made,

and realising that everything
he has been chasing has been wrong.

CALLAHAM: And it's a moment
where the flashbacks works so well.

It's very affecting as a father
to think about running back in your head

all the moments
that you had with your kid.

(SCREECHES)

(RINGS HUM)

(ROARING)

CRETTON: What I love
about Wenwu's ending is

he doesn't really have time to change.

In my mind,
he doesn't have a big character

change that happens...

He just changes, just enough,

to do one selfless act and...

It's headed for the village!

(CREATURES CHITTERING)

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

CRETTON: That's it. I don't know.
To me, him giving up those rings

is the first time that Wenwu did

a truly selfless act
since his wife died.

That shot right there

was a shot that...

With Shang-Chi running
and jumping onto the dragon,

was one of the first shots
that we saw from Weta,

and it was actually just an experiment

to see how the dragon moves

and how Shang-Chi might
move alongside the dragon.

And it never made into the movie
until late, late in the game.

We were trying to figure out how
to get Shang-Chi onto that dragon.

And Kevin brought up
that experimental shot

that was given to us from Weta
that he always liked

and we went and revisited it

and asked them to

finalise it and it made it in the movie
and it's pretty iconic.

CALLAHAM: Again,
Simu running really well.

CRETTON: Yeah,
Simu's really good at running.

CALLAHAM: He looks fast, man.
It'd like to know what his 40-10 is.

(CRETTON CHUCKLES)

CRETTON: I love this shot, too.

(GROWLING)

- (SCREECHING)
- (BOTH GRUNTING)

(GUANG BO SPEAKING MANDARIN)

CRETTON: I always wondered

what it was like directing these

really VFX-heavy moments in a movie.

And I always thought I would...

As a director, I would just sit back
and let other people do all the work.

But it's much more

collaborative and involved
than I expected,

and way harder than I anticipated.

Trying to tell all of

the A, B, C, stories that are happening
throughout this entire sequence

was something that was

really a crazy puzzle piece
to put together.

It really is a testament
to the team that we had

to be able to overly communicate
with all of these bits and pieces

that fit together
to create this third act.

CALLAHAM:
It's so complicated. It's incredible.

(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)

(PAINED SCREECHING)

Holy shit.

CRETTON: That shot of Nora was shot...

Right now we're about a week
from the premiere.

That shot

was shot in England
with Nora about a month ago.

CALLAHAM: Oh, really?
CRETTON: Yeah.

(BOTH CHUCKLING)

CALLAHAM: The way
that you steal these things

and get them into the movie,
it's incredible.

(SPEAKING MANDARIN)

(SHANG-CHI GRUNTING)

CRETTON: So, some beautiful Weta...

Weta work right here.

Everything in that is created
100% by Weta.

CALLAHAM:
The work here is so amazing.

I mean, for me to watch it now...

Because this on the page,
this is just words,

the scale of what you're seeing
is so enormous

and you can't imagine it in your head
when you're writing it.

But the way that they were able to
capture that scale of...

The enormity of this sequence
is pretty mind-boggling.

There's this dragon and this demon,

both of them are enormous,
and you've got

the water and the weather pattern
that you're seeing right here.

But then, simultaneously,

you're still able to focus on

Shang-Chi and Xialing
and the story that they're telling

inside of this incredibly huge moment.

It's really well done.

CRETTON: One of things I love
about that final moment

is the way that our composer,
Joel P. West...

He created these themes that
have been woven throughout the movie.

There's a clear Wenwu theme,
there's a clear theme for Li.

And the way that both of those themes

come together
and interact with Shang-Chi

as he's falling toward
the Dweller-in-Darkness.

And using a combination
of his mom's power

with his dad's rings

to destroy the beast and save the world.

The way that those themes come together

to create one melody
is really beautiful.

So proud to have the work
that Joel did for this movie.

YING NAN:...our sisters and brothers.

And though we will always
hold on to their memories...

CRETTON: This was one of one of
the last scenes that we shot

when we were leaving this set.

This village of Ta Lo

was a physical set that was built out

in the countryside outside of Sydney.

And this was one of
the last nights that we were there,

and it really was
a very sombre and special night

for all of us to remember.

Loved ones that

we all remembered who have passed on.

(SOMBRE TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(MUSIC SWELLING)

KATY: I seriously thought
we were going to die.

And I'd only learned how to shoot a bow,

like, a day earlier,

CALLAHAM: That's a great cut.

...killing all these Soul Suckers
with Shaun's auntie,

who's this awesome,
magical kung fu goddess.

And I'm hanging on
to The Great Protector

with my sister at this point,

trying not to get eaten
by the Mega Soul Sucker.

Oh, the Mega Soul Sucker
was such a nasty bitch.

CALLAHAM: This is another example of

that tone that Destin
set up so beautifully

at the beginning of the movie showing

friends hang out at a bar,
doing normal things.

The way that you intercut here

between this giant,
literally universe-hinging set piece

and then back to, they're still people,
they still have their friends,

they still live in the real world.

I love that. I love the way

it both amplifies and undercuts

the enormity of what they've
just been through, which is super fun.

And these two
just being like, "Bullshit."

(CRETTON CHUCKLES)

She's back
at my dad's compound,

shutting down his operations.

CALLAHAM: It has
a man-on-the-ground feeling

that we haven't seen

or I don't remember seeing in
any MCU movie up until now.

You know, Spider-Man
does that pretty well,

but this is an even more
comedic version of that.

Of just what happens
when you save the world

and you come home and no one knows.

CRETTON: I really love
the way Stephanie plays

this moment right here.

When you watch her reaction

when Wong comes in. (CHUCKLES)

It's really funny.

Yeah, I know, sir.
I'm a huge fan...

Do you have the rings?

SHANG-CHI: Uh... Yeah, yes.

CRETTON: Benedict is such a force
when he came into this scene.

It's like, he walks into a set,

he looks at everything,
he just starts circling it

like a shark,
like, what's he going to do?

And he's looking at the props

and he felt the weight of
each of their chairs

and was like, "Okay,
I know what I'm going to do."

But he waits for the take,

and then he comes in
without them knowing.

When he walked in,

he just grabbed both of their chairs
and ripped it apart.

(LAUGHS)

So their reactions
were completely not acted.

They had no idea he was going
to just scoop them out.

CALLAHAM: Had he been told to
pound that drink, or did he do that?

CRETTON: That was also improvised.

CALLAHAM: It's amazing.

CRETTON: Yeah, he does...

I mean, I love improvisation on set,

and he's the perfect actor

'cause he's just always
looking for a way

to disrupt a scene in the best way.

CALLAHAM: Talk about these credits.

Where did the idea for this come from?

CRETTON: The ideas for these credits
came from the theme of the movie,

which was rooted in the spirit of Mom,

and Mom's spirit is rooted in water.

So we talked to Perception,
who did our credits,

and we talked to them
about what we could do

with animating water
that we haven't really seen before.

And really loved what they pitched us,

- and this is where we landed.
- CALLAHAM: That's really neat.

There's like a gentleness to it

because the music is soft in a way.

CRETTON: I mean, I love the song.

I love the song
that plays over the end credits.

It's an Anderson.Paak song,
who's one of my favourite artists,

and it's a song he hasn't released yet,

or will be releasing
with the album of our movie.

And I heard an early draft of the song

and just fell in love with it,

so I'm so happy that it's in
the end of our movie.

Okay. What about this scene?

CALLAHAM: Holograms.

Finally.

CRETTON: We always...
From the beginning,

we knew that we wanted
to keep the legend

of The Ten Rings alive
at the end of our movie.

So we wanted to end this movie

with a clear question
that we know will be answered

at some point in the future.

CALLAHAM:
Which is where do they come from?

CRETTON: Where do they come from?
Who are they talking to?

- What exactly do they do?
- CALLAHAM: In the comics,

the finger rings come from a spaceship.

And I do you remember talking a lot
about what we wanted to reveal,

and whether we were going to keep
any element of that origin story or not.

And we had the freedom
to do what we wanted to do,

because we were changing the rings.

But we had written a lot of versions

of how Wenwu came upon them,
where did he get them?

And they were always designed
to be intentionally nebulous,

so that this could happen.

CRETTON: Yeah, who knows what's going
to happen with those rings?

Welcome to the circus.

(CRETTON CHUCKLES)

CRETTON: Who knows?

I know this is a lot to take in,

but you're gonna have
to start getting used to that.

From now on,
the trajectory of your lives

will be like nothing you've
ever experienced before.

And there's no going back.

You both have a long journey
ahead of you.

Go home, get some rest.

Yeah. That's a good idea.

Yeah. Yeah,
we probably should do that.

Or...

(HOTEL CALIFORNIA BY EAGLES PLAYING)

ALL: (SINGING)
Welcome to the Hotel California

CRETTON: You know, I have wanted to have

Hotel California in one of my movies

since I was in high school.

CALLAHAM: Congratulations.

It's a big moment.

CRETTON: I have not
been able to afford it

until finally working on a Marvel movie.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

CALLAHAM: That's great. That's great.

It's very critical, though.

It's not just a fun needle drop.

You've got a real story around it.
It's paid off.

CRETTON: We had to...
CALLAHAM: I'm not going to ask

how much it cost you, but...

CRETTON: We had to make it critical
in order to justify

the amount of money
that we paid to put it in the movie.

(CALLAHAM CHUCKLES)

CALLAHAM: I have a bad habit of writing
needle drops into movies,

and the one I've tried every time
is I really want

Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)
by Cinderella to end up

in a movie I've written at some point,
but it gets cut immediately.

CRETTON: Can you sing it for us?

CALLAHAM: On the first rewrite
every time.

I don't sing well.
You know the song, come on.

It's about how you don't know
what you've got till it's gone.

- CRETTON: Yeah...
- (BOTH LAUGH)

CALLAHAM: It's a theme that works
in almost every movie ever made.

CRETTON: That's what I figured.

(SONG PLAYING)
What a nice surprise

What a nice surprise

Bring your alibis

CALLAHAM: This is
a very accomplished film, Destin.

Well done.

CRETTON: Thank you. I thought...
CALLAHAM: Did you ever think...

CRETTON: Did I ever think that I would
make a movie like this?

CALLAHAM:
When you were making Short Term 12,

did you look down the path of the future

and think,
"Someday I'm gonna make a giant..."

Were there superhero movies?

Were they happening in the way
that they're happening now

at the time that you jumped in?

Probably not, right?

CRETTON: I mean, I think
Christopher Nolan's Batman

- was going on around that time.
- CALLAHAM: But the Marvel thing

probably was just a couple Iron Mans
at that point, maybe.

CRETTON: Yeah, Marvel was
never the end goal of mine

until I saw the announcement
that this character was

going to be introduced to the MCU.

And it was...
I don't know, something sparked.

And it wasn't an obvious
"I have to do this movie, "

but it was a "I really have to be
part of this conversation."

And coming in to talk
to Jonathan Schwartz,

our producer, really got me excited

that they were taking
the character seriously,

and that they were wanting
to do something

that was really special
and significant and respectful

to the Asian
and Asian American community.

And then hearing that, Dave,

you were on the project,
connected to the project,

was also really exciting to me.

CALLAHAM: I felt the same way. I love...

Working collaboratively is, I think...

I don't know any other way
at this point, but I just...

It just makes everything a lot more fun

and I was very eager for them to

bring me a director
that I could spitball with,

and I was a little bit alone
in the room with Jonathan,

and we were both smashing our heads
against the wall quite a bit

before you came in,

and you came in
and so much to say and so many ideas.

Every major theme
and concept in this movie

came in the day you walked in it.

So, it was just so fun to be able

to help make that a reality.

And I felt the same way
that you did, by the way,

when they first talked to me
about this project.

I was really nervous.

I was like, "Oh, boy, I want to do it
but I don't want to mess it up, "

and I didn't know which of those things
was stronger for quite some time.

There's so much baggage

that comes with Asian American
representation in Western filmmaking,

so, I'm really glad
we were crazy enough to try.

CRETTON: I should also take a moment
to talk about Brad Allan

and the incredible work
that he did on this movie.

We're all devastated

to hear that we lost Brad Allan

before he was able to see this movie,

and he was such an integral part

of every aspect of this movie,
that the things that he contributed to,

not only in the choreography
and the fight sequences,

but the questions that he posed
in the room were vital to

really big story structure

and character development,

that happened even in scenes

that have nothing to do
with fight choreography.

It was... It's still really,

really hard to even process

the fact that he's not with us any more.

But, I mean,
for anybody watching this movie,

his fingerprints are everywhere
throughout this movie,

and I feel so privileged and honoured

to have been able to work with him

and hope that that this movie
is something

that he would have really been proud of.

CALLAHAM: Give a little shout-out
to Allana here if you want.

CRETTON: Oh, yeah.

Allana drew that.

(DOOR SLIDES OPEN)

They're waiting.

CRETTON: Yeah.

CALLAHAM: Unbelievable, really.

CRETTON: Yeah, Allana Williams.

You basically asked her
any question about anything

and she'll have the answer
in about three minutes.

Turns out she also is
a really amazing artist,

and so she sketched out
that drawing of Li

that Xialing was looking at.

CALLAHAM: That always makes me insane.

When you find out that someone
who's really talented

in one thing that you already know about
also has incredible talents elsewhere.

That's really hard for me to deal with.

(HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING)

(ALL GRUNTING SYNCHRONOUSLY)

CALLAHAM: The Ten Rings will return.

CRETTON: Ten Rings will return.