Song's first starring role as the title character was in the 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie "", which had over 5.7 million viewers at its premiere. "Wendy Wu" was planned to be a comedy, but the directors of the film were having trouble finding a suitable actor with both the comedic presence and taekwondo ability to play the main character, originally named Kenny Lu. Lydia Cook, one of the films's directors, said, "Brenda was originally brought in to play the monk's role. We started training with her in martial arts, and that's when we realized that she should be Kenny Lu. They quickly switched things around and offered Brenda the lead in the movie. She had the perfect combination of wit and martial arts." Song had to break a brick with her hand in a screen test before landing the title role.