Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
Indie filmmakers and rising stars Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead became known to Marvel fans for their mind-bending work on episodes of the Marvel television series Moon Knight and Loki season 2, which took a psychological trip into the split mind of Marc Spector/Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) and a time-twisting sci-fi trek through the multiverse with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the Time Variance Authority. The duo — also known for their sci-fi films The Endless and Synchronic — also directed episodes of Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again following a creative overhaul. The intense first footage from the street-level series teased what Marvel’s Brad Winderbaum touted as the “most brutal, visceral” action ever produced by Marvel Studios, making Benson and Moorhead a natural fit for the fast-paced, fists-flying martial arts of Shang-Chi. The sequel’s rumored title (Shang-Chi and the Wreckage of Time) suggests a link to time travel and/or the multiverse — a corner of the MCU that has already made the duo fanboy favorites.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah — collectively known as Adil & Bilall — have blockbuster cred. The duo took over the bombastic Bad Boys franchise from Michael Bay and delivered back to back hits with 2020’s Bad Boys for Life and 2024’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die, their pair of frenetically-shot, kinetic action buddy-cop comedies starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The sought-after directors brought their distinct stylistic flourishes to the 2022 domestic drama Rebel, and their street-level sensibilities to two episodes of the mostly-grounded Marvel Studios series Ms. Marvel. Adil & Bilall contrasted Kamala Khan’s (Iman Vellani) superheroics with smaller-scale stakes, and likely would have infused Batgirl with similar flourish if the DC movie wasn’t scrapped at Warner Bros.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Like other filmmakers on this list, Gina Prince-Bythewood has been linked to superhero movies that never got off the ground. Known for her authentic, character-driven work on such films as Love & Basketball (2000), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and Beyond the Lights (2014), Prince-Bythewood was long attached to Sony’s since-scrapped Spider-Man spinoff Silver & Black, which would have teamed Silver Sable and Black Cat. Along with directing a 2018 episode of the Freeform-aired Marvel series Cloak & Dagger, the formidable Prince-Bythewood received widespread praise for her work on the action-heavy comic book adaptation The Old Guard (2020) for Netflix and the acclaimed historical action epic The Woman King (2022). She’ll next bring her abilities to balance action and drama to the film adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s novel Children of Blood and Bone, which was set up at Disney’s Lucasfilm before moving to Paramount Pictures.
Justin Lin
After directing the sleek Sundance selection Better Luck Tomorrow — a coming of age crime drama featuring an all-Asian American cast — Justin Lin accelerated Universal’s modest street-racing series The Fast and the Furious with 2006’s Japan-set Tokyo Drift. Though Lin was back behind the wheel for 2009’s Fast & Furious, it was 2011’s Fast Five (starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Dwayne Johnson) that took the franchise full throttle. The physics-defying heist movie turned the Fast Saga into a bonafide blockbuster engine, with Lin helming the well-reviewed Star Trek Beyond in-between Fast & Furious 6 and F9: The Fast Saga. Lin was reportedly in contention to direct Spider-Man 4, suggesting his smart and stylish approach to blockbuster moviemaking appeals to both Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios.
Gareth Evans
As director of 2011’s The Raid: Redemption and 2014’s The Raid 2, Gareth Evans is known for adrenalized and hard-hitting, inventive action — a super-charged style he brought to his 2016 short film Pre Vis Action, which Evans described as “samuraisilat” (a blend of the samurai movie and the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat). The Los Angeles Times praised the visionary director’s high-octane Raid for having “the most peerlessly shot, performed and choreographed fight sequences you’re likely to see on screen,” which is why fans were excited when Evans was linked to a never-made Deathstroke movie starring Joe Manganiello as DC’s masked mercenary and assassin.
Ang Lee
The two-time Oscar winner (Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi) received his first Oscar nomination for directing the 2000 wuxia martial arts blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, an iconic film of the genre that appealed to both Chinese and American audiences with its weightless, gravity-defying action (choreographed by The Matrix‘s Yuen Wo-ping). Some critics likened the romantic epic and its high-flying kung-fu fights to a comic book, a style Lee brought to 2003’s Hulk. Like Cretton’s Shang-Chi — a family drama first, and a superhero martial arts movie second — Lee brought (ahem) sense and sensibility to the comic book adaptation. Most recently, Lee helmed the ’90s-style Will Smith action-thriller Gemini Man in 2019.
