MOVIE PREVIEW – Captain America: Civil War directors Anthony and Joe Russo made a brand new company which will produce a Chinese superhero movie franchise.

During the past years, the Chinese market became the largest foreign market for Hollywood, which was made even more accentuated with this weekend’s release of Captain America: Civil War. Last weekend, the movie debuted in China, taking in an enormous $220 million in international territories, and nearly half of which came from China alone, $95.8 million. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Captain America: Civil War directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo are setting up a company in China to produce a brand new Chinese superhero franchise.

A Hero’s Awakening

The actual production company revealed is called Anthem & Song, and it will team up with Chinese film company Beijing FangJin Visual Media Culture Communication Company to co-produce a new superhero project, tentatively titled A Hero’s Awakening.

“It is fair to say that the Russos are regarded as heroes in the global film business. In the future, everyone will be focused on the China market. By working with the Russos, we want to use the best visual storytelling to make localized films that fit the Chinese market,” said FangJin CEO Li Xing had to say about the new company in a statement.

The Russo brothers have fetched on Anthony Leonardi III, a concept artist who has worked on Game of Thrones, The Jungle Book, and Kong: Skull Island, to serve as co-director for A Hero’s Awakening along with Chinese director Mushu Feng (Demon Warrior). No story or character details are being released at this time, but this report states that the entire cast will be populated by Chinese actors, including the hero. The movie will kick off a franchise that will consist of three films, with the Russo brothers said to be actively involved in the film’s casting.

There’s an actual Captain China comic!

Now, the funny thing is, there is an actual “Captain China” comic, which has quietly been published by US-based independent publisher Excel Comics for years. In the rather unknown series, which came out in 2012, Captain China is an “enhanced soldier” who survives the Mao era, sleeps for 50 years, and wakes up in the modern age. The superhero wears a costume made of China’s national flag and a police cap, and is equipped with a Mauser pistol (used by the Red Army during World War 2).

Pictures from the comic are circulating online in China, though they have nothing to do with the Russo brothers’ upcoming films.

Still, in the upcoming Chinese superhero films, the hero will not actually be named “Captain China,” Su said, saying that the trilogy is “similar to Captain America.”

“He can control things with his mind”

The first flick of the series has a budget of around 350 million yuan ($53 million), and the trilogy a combined budget of 1.5 billion yuan ($230 million). (By comparison, Civil War’s production cost is $250 million.) The Russo brothers will co-produce the films, and their team will be in charge of everything from the screenplay to directing to special effects. The other two films, Nirvana and The Hero’s Sacrifice, are expected to hit Chinese theaters in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Speaking with the journalist of the Los Angeles Times, Joe Russo explained more about the upcoming Chinese superhero.

“He can control things with his mind. And it’s an origin story, it’s a little bit of a through-the-looking-glass concept; he’s a normal person with a normal life and one day he happens upon the fact that he has these abilities and it opens up a whole world to him that he didn’t know existed.”

Captain China already stuck

The movie titles make the Chinese superhero franchise sound more like Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and how the hero gets his superpower is a bit like Spiderman. While the name “Captain China” won’t be used in the films, the nickname has stuck in China. The nationalism of Captain America—a government-backed patriotic soldier—has sparked much discussion about what his Chinese counterpart will be like.

“Directors, can you really understand the core socialist values?” one blogger mockingly asked the Russo brothers on Sina Weibo (link in Chinese, registration required), referring to the ideology of the Communist Party.

We’ll keep you posted with more development son A Hero’s Awakening as soon as we have more details.