Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton revealed that the creature known as Morris in the film was inspired by two major things: the Chinese deity called a Hundun, a God of Chaos, and his own 15-year-old dachshund named Morris.
"The spirit of Morris is definitely inspired by my Morris, who I love very much," Cretton told Marvel.com. "[Movie] Morris moves a lot like Morris and sounds a lot like Morris. Morris [the dog] is black and brown, kind of a classic dachshund."
The director added that, when they were designing the fuzzy creature, the goal was to make him "cute-weird."
"All of the development stages of Morris were, 'How do we make him huggable and something that you would actually want to pet and love?' And he wasn't always like that," Cretton said. "There were certain renditions where he looked a little bit more like a plucked chicken, which didn't feel very good, or went through different sounds. We went through a version where he sounded like an intestine. He sounded very intestinal, which was not a good sound for Morris."
Producer Jonathan Schwartz also chimed in about the early stages of Morris, explaining, "We definitely wanted Morris to not have a face, [but] have wings -- that's job one."
"Then knowing that, how do we make him look cute? Which is a bigger challenge; eyes and face are a big indicator of emotion as it turns out," he continued. "So that's where things like fur, and feathers, and the voice of Morris came from. How do we then make this creature, who is very weird, look and feel a little bit more human?"
But while Cretton and Schwartz played a big part in developing the look of Morris, both the director and producer admitted that it was Sir Ben Kingsley -- who portrays Trevor Slattery in the film -- who really ended up being the Morris expert on set.
"Sir Ben became a master of Morris and knew Morris better than anybody," Cretton confirmed. "To see that relationship blossom over the course of this movie was a joy to watch."
For his part, Kingsley admitted that he really enjoyed developing a relationship with Morris' handler, noting, "Morris is sometimes on the end of a very long pole. And I did build a rapport with the handler and helped him time certain gestures and movements, to which I could respond. And very soon, it was like having a real little animal with me and a pet rather than a green blob on the end of a pole. Morris was very sensitive, and it was a pleasure to build that rapport."
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now playing in theaters.
Source: Marvel.com