Marvel Studios didn’t waste any time in confirming Simu Liu as an Avenger, with a promo video celebrating the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star as the newest member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes arriving just 24 hours after the shared superhero universe’s 25th feature film installment hit theaters.
That’s a huge vote of confidence in both the actor and his franchise debut, and he even shares the screen with a couple of heavy hitters in the mid-credits scene. Shang-Chi and Awkwafina’s Katy discover that the Ten Rings have caught the attention of not just Doctor Strange’s associate Wong, but Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner as well.
In a new interview, director Destin Daniel Cretton broke down the first of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ two stingers, and outlined his hopes for what it could mean for the future of the MCU.
“We talked about it being Brie, but we did not know that it could make plausible sense that Brie could be there. I mean, it obviously helps that we ended up landing on hologram versions of these characters so they can just step away and get back into whatever crazy stuff they’re dealing with. And I’m not even totally aware of what they’re dealing with. All I know is I pitch ideas, and the only time that ideas get kicked back is if it doesn’t make logical sense to other ideas that are percolating for those characters. In terms of what’s next, I know what’s on my mind is the same as what’s on everybody else’s mind. And hopefully, there’s an Avengers in the future, somewhere.”
Kevin Feige has hardly been shy in admitting that the Avengers will be assembled again, but few people were expecting Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to come right out and confirm its title hero as a new addition to the roster. It looks as though the origins of the artifact, and the mysterious beacon they’re sending out, could be set to factor heavily into whatever the major storyline of Phase Four turns out to be.
Wong will return in both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so the connective tissue threaded from Shang-Chi throughout the upcoming slate of projects is already happening much faster than anticipated.