The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become so popular that the franchise has made a conscious effort to shy away from origin stories in recent years. Indeed, the mere existence of a superhero blockbuster hailing from Kevin Feige’s outfit is more than enough to sell any project to the masses, but casual viewers definitely need a crash course when it comes to something like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Out of the eleven Phase Four movies confirmed so far, twelve if you include Deadpool 3, only Shang-Chi and Eternals are introducing brand new faces. Jon Watts’ Fantastic Four might be rebooting the titular team for the MCU, but most fans are fully aware of who those characters are, and Chloe Zhao’s cosmic adventure takes place over thousands of years, so origins are arguably non-essential. But Destin Daniel Cretton’s martial arts comic book epic is another story, and we finally have the first trailer for the film, offering up a solid taste of what to expect.
The title hero may have made his Marvel Comics debut in 1973, but he’s far from a household name, although that looks as if it’s about to change in a major way. Simu Liu is poised to deliver a star-making turn as Shang-Chi, who finds himself forced to reckon with his past after being drawn into the orbit of The Mandarin, with Tony Leung cementing the retcon of Iron Man 3‘s divisive Trevor Slattery twist.
The Ten Rings organization ties it firmly to established MCU canon dating all the way back to Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, and based on the footage, it looks to be a whole lot of fun. Awkwafina, Fala Chen, Men’ger Zhan, Florian Munteanu, Ronny Chieng and Michelle Yeoh co-star, with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings coming to theaters on September 3rd.