Jessica Henwick Reveals She Could Have Been Shang-Chi's Sister
In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, British actress Jessica Henwick revealed that she was once presented with a near-impossible choice: Star in Marvel's first Asian-led superhero flick Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or star alongside Keanu Reeves in the long-anticipated The Matrix follow-up, The Matrix Resurrections.
Needless to say at this point in time, Henwick chose The Matrix Resurrections. Now, she's opening up about why.
In the interview, Henwick discusses how she was given the chance to either do a screen test with Simu Liu for Shang-Chi or a chemistry read for The Matrix Resurrections. However, due to exclusivity clauses in both films' contracts, she could only choose one film to move forward with.
When asked what prompted her to bank on new Matrix movie, Henwick mentioned that one factor that pushed her to turn down Shang-Chi was the possibility that taking up the role of Xialing would mean that Colleen Wing, her character in Marvel's Iron Fist series, would never make it to the MCU.
And, (SPOILERS BELOW!) while Henwick's concerns are not unfounded - recently another Marvel series character, Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock (aka. Daredevil) made it into Spider-Man: No Way Home - there is still the case that Gemma Chan has made multiple appearances in Marvel works without incident. Chan has been cast as different characters in both Captain Marvel and Eternals.
Having seen both Shang-Chi and The Matrix Resurrections, Henwick's choice was a good one. As Bugs, Henwick exudes an effortless cyberpunk cool that fits the character and the film's universe. Not to mention, the opportunity to play the hacker that is the center of an epic opening fight sequence and leads both Reeve's Neo, bringing the audience back into The Matrix, is truly difficult to pass up.
This means that not only did Henwick choose a central character by playing Bugs, but by putting herself out of the running as Xialing, Henwick then allowed for Chinese actress Meng'er Zhang to take up the role, one that would eventually lead Zhang to find love on set with Yung Lee, an action designer on Shang-Chi.
So, at the end of the day, all's well that ends well.
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