Wang Leehom Wang is Chinese superhero Annihilator

Taiwanese singer/actor Wang Leehom has signed on to be The Annihilator, a superhero created by Stan Lee and Dan Gilroy, and the focus of a multimedia campaign including a film and comic books. The Annihilator will be shot in English (but they’ll probably be some Chinese in the film) and is budgeted at over $100 million.

Stan Lee talks up the story as another superhero story, except the hero just happens to be Chinese. The film will be made with an eye towards worldwide box office (and the casting of a star popular in China and about a Chinese hero is a sure fire way to get access to the lucrative Chinese box office!)

“The Annihilator” will tell the story of a young Chinese man forced to leave his hometown in mainland China amid dramatic circumstances. After time in the United States, he returns home in the guise of the Annihilator, who uses his extraordinary powers to save the world and also explore his roots. One official description added that the character would be “a young Chinese man given a second chance as an international superhero, who returns home to mete out justice.”

This is an interesting play, because there isn’t an established hero to base the film on, yet the budget is very large. Still, the Chinese aspect should fuel enough money to turn a tidy profit, and if the film is good, probably much more than that. With the small amount of films with an Asian male lead, The Annihilator is also a welcome piece of good news. Here is hoping this hero is not a zero.