Marvel Doesn’t Own Movie Rights To Shang-Chi’s Biggest Villain

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set to finally introduce Iron Man's most iconic villain, The Mandarin, to the MCU, but Shang-Chi's greatest enemy, Fu Manchu, will be nowhere in sight. Why? Because Marvel no longer owns the rights to the character. Mandarin is replacing Fu Manchu as his primary antagonist and possibly as his father as well.

It was confirmed at SDCC 2019 that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be part of Marvel Studios and Disney's lineup for Phase 4 of the MCU. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the movie stars Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as the Mandarin, and Awkwafina. Shang-Chi will be the first Marvel film to focus on an Asian superhero, too, which has drawn even more attention to the project. In Marvel Comics, Shang-Chi is the Master of Kung Fu and one of Marvel's two most prominent martial arts superheroes, with the other being Iron Fist.

In the movie, Shang-Chi will face off against the Mandarin, a villain who has been teased since the first MCU movie, 2008's Iron Man, with the introduction of a terrorist organization called the Ten Rings. Marvel notoriously faked out audiences with Ben Kingsley's Mandarin impersonator in Iron Man 3, but the Marvel one-shot, All Hail the King, proved that the real Mandarin exists somewhere in the MCU. He'll finally make his long-awaited debut in Shang-Chi, taking the place of the character's comic book arch-rival, Fu Manchu.

Who is Fu Manchu?

Created in 1913 by Sax Rohmer, Dr. Fu Manchu was an evil Chinese criminal mastermind who was often identified by his iconic mustache. Fu Manchu was the leader of a Chinese gang called the Si-Fan. He used the Si-Fan to carry out his dream of returning China to its past glory. His schemes were often thwarted by MI-6, as well as his long-time nemesis, Sir Denis Nayland Smith.

Rohmer featured Fu Manchu as the titular villain of several novels, published between 1913 and 1959. Due to Fu Manchu's popularity, Rohmer's novels were eventually adapted to the big screen. In the early 1970s, Marvel Comics acquired the rights to Fu Manchu from the Rohmer estate and arranged for the character to be used as the main antagonist and father of a new kung fu hero, Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi's comic book series, The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, borrowed a sizable chunk of the supporting cast from the Rohmer novels, but also introduced a few new characters to join Shang-Chi in his quest to defeat Fu Manchu.

In Marvel Comics, Fu Manchu is an immortal criminal genius who is often described by Shang-Chi as the most evil man in the world. He trained Shang-Chi to be an unquestionably loyal instrument of death, but was disappointed when Shang-Chi turned against him. Shang-Chi teamed up with agents of MI-6 to take down Fu Manchu and his criminal empire. Fu Manchu and MI-6 clashed numerous times over the course of the series.

Marvel Doesn't Have The Rights To Fu Manchu

Marvel's The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kun Fu series had a successful run that lasted from 1974 to 1983. Around the time of the book's cancellation, Marvel's licensing rights to Fu Manchu expired. Since the series was cancelled, Marvel opted not to renew the rights. In the years that followed, Shang-Chi appeared in only a handful of comics as a guest star. Later on, Marvel took an interest in reviving Shang-Chi's story and his battles with Fu Manchu, but they no longer had the rights to use the villain. So the comic book writers avoided mentioning his name.

Using Fu Manchu was an issue even though Rohmer's novels are now in the public domain. According to CBR, the Rohmer estate trademarked the "Fu Manchu" name, which kept Marvel from using it in marketing. Eventually, this problem was solved when a Secret Avengers comic renamed him "Zheng Zu" and declared "Fu Manchu" to be an alias.

To this day, Marvel still doesn't have the rights to use Fu Manchu, and now that they have found a way around this problem, it's highly unlikely that this will change, despite the fact that it also keeps them from using other Rohmer creations as well. Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Dr. Petrie, and Fu Manchu's daughter, Fah Lo Suee, all appeared in Master of Kung Fu but have been ignored ever since the licensing rights expired.

Marvel Doesn't Want Him Anyway

Shang-Chi confronting his father Fu Manchu

Marvel not owning the rights to a hero's greatest villain may look like an enormous obstacle when it comes to giving him a solo movie, but this isn't the case for Fu Manchu and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Fu Manchu isn't in the same category as Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, or other big-name properties that Marvel fans have wanted to see in the MCU. In fact, Marvel Studios wouldn't use Fu Manchu in a Shang-Chi movie even if the character's rights weren't a problem.

When Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was confirmed at SDCC 2019, some Chinese fans reacted in anger over Shang-Chi's connection to Fu Manchu, a character who many feel is an insulting caricature of Chinese culture. It's been said that his appearance, personality, and plan to bring China back to its ancient glory are offensive to Chinese. Fu Manchu was a reflection of "Yellow Peril", and the idea that East Asia was a threat to the western world. This response to Fu Manchu is actually nothing new. The controversy surrounding Fu Manchu goes all the way back to 1932, when the Chinese embassy issued a complaint about MGM's The Mask of Fu Manchu, a movie which saw Fu Manchu on a mission to kill white men and take their women.

Shang-Chi creator Jim Starlin confirmed that he quit writing Shang-Chi's comics after being "horrified" by the Fu Manchu books. Starlin also hopes that Fu Manchu will be kept out of the movie, and this appears to be exactly what Marvel intends to do. Fu Manchu is problematic for Marvel Studios in more ways than one (considering how important China is to Disney's box office), and since Marvel has already found a perfect replacement in the Mandarin, this is one villain who may never appear in the MCU.

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