Shang-Chi is also known to comic book fans as the Master of Kung Fu, a Chinese martial arts expert inspired by the 1970s David Carradine television series Kung Fu and martial arts movie icon Bruce Lee. The film will reportedly attempt a similar path to that of Black Panther, with a mostly Asian and Asian-American cast and crew working on a story that reflects diverse experiences and new locales previously unrepresented in superhero tentpoles.

Screenwriter Callaham penned the upcoming Warner Bros. superhero sequel Wonder Woman 1984, alongside cowriters Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns. Callaham also contributed to drafts of Ant-Man and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the story for 2014’s Godzilla.

The Asia Pacific market is the most important for global box office, and Disney has spent the past several years working hard to open new opportunities and outreach into that market. The Marvel brand is already massive and dominant in Asia, so expanding the appeal by increasing representation for Asian characters and artists, while also increasing the appeal to Asian-American audiences who likewise are woefully underrepresented in Hollywood cinema, is not only a smart move for Marvel but a right one.

Big genre entertainment that diversifies the cast and crew, while using more online and social media marketing to reach demographics who overindex on mobile devices — and who get more exposure to entertainment online marketing—has proven highly successful with well-branded IP. Diverse audiences both domestically and internationally fueled the recent blockbuster success of several major franchise releases that increased representation for underserved peoples, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Black Panther, Furious 7, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and The Fate of the Furious, for example.