While Disney released a live-action remake of Mulan just a few years back, for a lot of folks, nothing beats the 1998 animated original. The penultimate movie in the Disney Renaissance (Tarzan concluded that era in 1999), Mulan starred future Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actress Ming-Na Wen as the title character, a young woman in the Han dynasty who pretends to be a man to take her elderly father’s place in the army. Mulan also featured Jurassic Park’s BD Wong as Captain Li Shang, but evidently a decent amount of people were unaware of this specific casting, as evidenced by some delightful comments.
To celebrate Mulan’s 22nd anniversary, the Disney Facebook page shared two side-by-side photos of Ming-Na Wen and BD Wong recording lines for the animated movie. There were all sorts of comments on the post, from people showering Wen with compliments to sharing their favorite Mulan songs, as well as a handful of people who were surprised Wong was part of Mulan’s cast. This fan summarized that sentiment pretty well:
Hold the phone !!! B.D Wong was the voice of Shang ?!
Yes, folks, BD Wong did indeed supply all of Shang’s regularly-spoken dialogue, while Donny Osmond was tapped as the character’s singing voice. At the time, Wong was arguably best known for playing Dr. Henry Wu in Jurassic Park, which co-starred Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dorn and Richard Attenborough, among others. This next fan was pleased to learn that one of their top Jurassic Park franchise performers also took part in Mulan:
I was today years old when I found out my favorite corrupt geneticist in Jurassic Park voiced Shang in Mulan.
Disney’s take on Mulan saw Fa Mulan training with the other recruits under Shang’s command, and while initially Shang felt betrayed when he learned about Mulan’s deception, they ultimately put aside their differences to save defeat Shan Yu and save the Emperor. By the end of the movie, Shang visits Mulan and her family at their home, having become enamored with her. Another Disney fan is now pleased that she can associate Shang with Henry Wu:
He was Shang? I always thought Shang had a sexy voice and also thought he was super sexy in Jurassic park. Super excited that they’re the same person.
Speaking of Henry Wu, while he was only a minor character in the first Jurassic Park movie, BD Wong later reprised the role for all three Jurassic World movies, where the character appeared as a key supporting antagonist. So while Shang stands out as one of Disney’s more notable male protagonists, this fan pointed out how Wong’s character in the Jurassic Park franchise went on to cause more problems.
Too bad BD went on to make Dinos
However, some people might not know BD Wong best on the live-action front from the Jurassic Park/World movies, but from his time as Dr. George Huang in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. After initially recurring in Seasons 2 and 3 of the NBC series, he was upgraded to a main cast member from Seasons 4-12, and then made guest appearances between Seasons 13-17. As this person put it:
Dr. Huang from SVU was Shang?????
Ming-Na Wen and BD Wong later reprised their respective roles for Mulan II, which was released direct-to-video in the United States in early 2005. Wong’s other notable credits include playing Father Ray Mukada in Oz, Brent Rosen in Madam Secretary, Whiterose/Minister Zhi Zhang in Mr. Robot and Professor Hugo Strange in Gotham. Wong can currently be seen for his fourth outing as Henry Wu in Jurassic World Dominion, and he’ll be heard later in the near future as the voice of Hon Wing in Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, which will both air on Cartoon Network and stream for HBO Max subscribers.
Keep visiting CinemaBlend for all sorts of Disney-related news, and take a look through our 2022 release schedule to see what movies the Mouse House has coming up for the rest of the year.