What Is The Song In The New Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings Teaser?
On April 19, 2021, fans got their first look at upcoming Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. First, Entertainment Weekly published an article about the film detailing its production that included some of the first official images of star Simu Li as new Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero, Shang-Chi. Shortly after that, the Marvel Studios Twitter account posted a two-minute-long teaser trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, citing Li's birthday as occasion for the surprise trailer drop.
The Shang-Chi adaptation has long been in the works. The MCU film was first announced in 2018, but well before that, in the eighties, Stan Lee was pushing to adapt Marvel's cult favorite martial artist into a movie, according to Inverse, even going so far as to meet with a pre-Crow Brandon Lee — the son of Bruce Lee — about starring in the title role. Needless to say, the release of this trailer is a touchstone for Asian American representation in superhero cinema, and the realization of an idea that has been percolating for decades in Hollywood.
The first trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings reveals lots of information about the film, much of which is entirely new to even devoted MCU fans. That said, one aspect of the film — entirely unrelated to its story — has fans talking, and that's the song that plays for nearly the entirety of the trailer's runtime. What is this song? Who is the artist? And where can we find it?
The Shang-Chi teaser seems to feature a new song by Jackson Wang
The song included in the new Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer immediately became a topic of conversation online, in large part due to the fact that it hasn't yet been released in an official capacity. In a discussion on the Marvel Studios subreddit, for example, fans report attempting to identify the song with Shazam, and bearing no results. Others, however, recognized the voice from a few vocal lines included in the trailer — and believe that it likely belongs to Hong Kong-based rapper Jackson Wang.
While this is not quite an official confirmation that the song is indeed by Wang, the official Instagram account for record label 88rising, which has released prior work by Wang, shared the trailer and tagged Wang's account in their post. Given the working relationship between 88rising and Wang, it's unlikely that they would attach his name to the trailer without knowing his involvement for certain.
This isn't the first time Jackson Wang's name has been linked with Shang-Chi. In 2019, when Marvel announced that they would be casting a Chinese actor in the central role of Shang-Chi, Jackson Wang was among a number of names fans in China hoped might play the hero (via Variety). More details about Wang's contributions to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings should become clearer as the film's September 3, 2021 release date draws closer.