Two Star Trek alums appear to be latest actors to join Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. Earlier this week multiple sources were reporting that Michelle Yeoh was in talks to join the cast of the upcoming MCU film. Yeoh, rose to fame in the United States after the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She was most recently Captain Philippa Georgiou on CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery.
Michelle Yeoh is already a Marvel Cinematic Universe alumni. Having appeared in a minor role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. She is not the first actor to serve double duty in the MCU. Gemma Chan, who is currently shooting Eternals previously played Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel. Additionally, Mahersahali Ali had previously been in Netflix’s Luke Cage. He’s now taking the role of Blade. No official announcements have been made about Yeoh joing Shang-Chi. Until then we will still have to mark this as rumor.
Rosalind Chao, who played Keiko O’Brien in both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She has also reportedly boarded the cast of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. While she has never appeared in an MCU movie before this is not Chao’s first brush with a Marvel project. Back in 1979 she had a small role in The Amazing Spider-Man TV series in a two-part episode called The Chinese Web.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set to be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12). Marvel newcomer Simu Liu (Kim’s Convenience) is playing the Master of Kung-Fu himself, Shang Chi. Additional cast that has been confirmed is Tony Leung (The Grandmaster) as The Mandarin and Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) in an unknown role.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set for release in February 2021.