Audiences Are Angry China's Classic Hero Has Been Made to Look Like 'Iron Man'

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By Dave Yin / Dec 21, 2018 12:12 PM / Society & Culture

How the Monkey King is supposed to look. Photo: VCG

Marvel fans in China are finding this East-West fusion hard to swallow.

The latest of a long line of big-screen reimaginings of the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West depicts the hero Monkey King in futuristic, AI-powered metallic armor. Sound familiar? Netizens likened the character in the trailer to that of Marvel film “Iron Man,” South China Morning Post reported Friday.

A still from the trailer.

The backlash has been so fierce that Tencent has now pulled the trailer from its video-streaming service, Tencent Video, South China Morning Post reported Friday.

The streaming release of the full-length film, “Armored War God Monkey King,” will no longer go forward. An official Weibo account promoting the film, which was produced by Beijing’s Daishu Movie and Guangzhou’s Grandmet Presentation, has been deleted, according to SCMP. You can, however, still view the trailer on YouTube here.

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