Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has now been out for a week, so the majority of hardcore Marvel fans have already seen it. It’s mostly safe, then, to talk about the movie’s mid-credits scene featuring a couple of surprising familiar faces. If you’ve yet to catch the film, it goes without saying that you should look away now, as spoilers are inbound.
The mid-credits sequence sees Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) reunite with Wong (Benedict Wong), who they briefly encountered earlier on in the movie. Now that Shang-Chi has inherited the ten rings from his father, Wong has launched an investigation into the origins of these ancient armbands. And he’s brought in a couple of experts to help him. Both Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) appear via hologram to reveal that the rings are like nothing they’ve ever seen before, but they are sending out a signal to an unknown source.
The involvement of these two Avengers was a well-kept secret beforehand, but anyone familiar with director Destin Daniel Cretton’s career had an inkling that Larson might show up. The pair have worked together many times before, in the likes of Short Term 12, The Glass Castle and Just Mercy, so it only makes sense that he found a role for her in his Marvel debut.
While speaking on ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast, Cretton opened up about what it was like shooting Larson’s cameo as Carol Danvers. The filmmaker revealed that it was a surreal scene to do, and the pair of them broke down in laughter at one point.
“It was really cool,” Cretton explained. “When she showed up, and I went and said hi to her in her trailer, and we caught up a bit because I hadn’t seen her in a while, and then I went to set. We got everything ready for her, and then she stepped onto set as Captain Marvel, and that’s the first time I’ve ever seen her in that costume up close, and it was super surreal. We both just started laughing because … I mean, I think Simu and I had many moments like this too where we’d just look at each other just going like, “What the hell are we doing here?” That’s how we felt on that stage. When we were on that stage in front of those 8,000 fans, we were just like … As soon as we stepped off, we started laughing, and that’s what it was between Brie and I on that set, just like, “What am I doing in that director’s chair, and what are you doing in that suit?” But yeah. It was a joy to see her.”
Larson’s next scheduled appearance in the MCU is The Marvels from Candyman‘s Nia DaCosta, which will see Carol team up with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and is due out in November 2022. In the meantime, catch Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in theaters now.