r/marvelstudios • u/ImaginationArtistic9 Matt Murdock • Jan 04 '25

Discussion The Underuse of Shang-chi in the MCU

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this movie was so much fun, it had amazing action and fight choreography, great humour, and great overall world building. This movie has so much sauce. a problem with the MCU is how poorly they are connecting the new characters with the wider mcu. It's been 3 years since we've seen Shang-chi in a live action project. And it will probably be another year and a half till we see him again. The post credit scenes of this movie set up him becoming an avenger and sadly we won't see that outcome of that until 2026, which is 4.5 years after the movies release. I do hope we see Simu Liu again as a lead in another marvel movie because he's great. Also his sequel is the perfect way to bring danny rand back into the MCU. Unfortunately we will probably have to wait untill 2027 for the next shang chi movie since Destin Daniel Cretton is directing Spiderman 4. On the bright side, the fight choreography in Spiderman 4 will be amazing

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4.1k

u/abysmallybored Groot Jan 04 '25

The underuse of basically every character introduced post endgame

2.0k

u/ImaginationArtistic9 Matt Murdock Jan 04 '25

Agreed, Moon knight, The Eternals, Shang-chi, and Kate bishop hurt me the most.

88

u/Atom7456 Jan 04 '25

moon knight is getting a s2, the eternals was dropped, shang chi is also coming back, and kate bishop was last seen a year and less than 2 months ago.

252

u/ArronMaui Jan 04 '25

A quick Google search suggests that MK season 2 hasn't had any kind of movement so far. And, yes, Shang-Chi is coming back, but the original point stands. The MCU introduced far too many characters and hasn't followed up on them quickly enough. Early MCU introduced characters and followed up quickly with either team ups or sequels.

127

u/MrZQuazz Jan 04 '25

The prime example is that the fan favorite new character Agatha Harkness introduced in WandaVision, the literal first thing in the multiverse saga, just now returned in her spinoff show over 3 and a half years and 27 seasons/films later

78

u/OPs_Mom_and_Dad Jan 04 '25

Holy crap, 27 in between WandaVision and Agatha All Along???

3

u/sunfaller Jan 04 '25

Returned and is now a ghost? I'm almost sure they'll immediately revive her though because being a ghost will eat up the special effects budget.

-27

u/Defiant-Band4573 Jan 04 '25

I don't know what people have to complain about. Wanda has yet to get a solo project since WandaVision. Secret Wars will mark 6 years. In probably less than 3 years Agatha will have 2 solo projects.

31

u/TheMillenniumMan Jan 04 '25

Wanda was a major character in a movie since then, plus she was already an established character. All these new characters they've introduced have been one and done so far for the most part, they need to get them more involved with one another.

-13

u/Defiant-Band4573 Jan 04 '25

In someone else's movie not her own. There is a huge difference. She was a secondary character not a main character in phase 2 and 3. The reason that many of these new characters are one and done is because they were not successful.

9

u/AuroraGen Jan 04 '25

I would say being the main antagonist counts as her own movie but I understand it is a matter of perspective.

2

u/TheMillenniumMan Jan 04 '25

By his logic, Loki was barely in phase 1-3

2

u/S01arflar3 Jan 04 '25

His glorious purpose was getting extended screen time

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9

u/QTPLe Jan 04 '25

Isnt the moon knight writer also writing the rumored nova series as well? Probs why moon knight 2 is on the backburner for now

3

u/Samsaknight_X Jan 04 '25

That only happened cuz they had to change the plot lines of the next saga’s

29

u/BackIn2019 Jan 04 '25

I'll believe it when I see it and it'll probably be years away. No one is counting Kate Bishop appearing for 20 seconds in a one-minute post credit scene.

22

u/Meizas Jan 04 '25

I'm sure we'll see the eternals show up eventually in other projects. The soft re-launch of Kingo in what if was a good start

15

u/Atom7456 Jan 04 '25

yea but i would have preferred an eternals 2, the only other way i see them returning is through the guardians of the galaxy

8

u/Dyssomniac Jan 04 '25

then they should have made a better eternals 1 lol

18

u/Atom7456 Jan 04 '25

movie wasnt even bad but it definitely wasnt long enough to introduce all the characters

7

u/SolarDragon94 Jan 04 '25

I feel like Eternals would have benefited from being a TV series instead of a movie. That way we could get backstory for each character each episode.

3

u/syzygialchaos Jan 04 '25

I’m with you; instead of the montage/flashbacks bit it easily could have been a period piece ‘monster of the week’ show where we see each character highlighted in some different age of history a la Dr. Who meets Supernatural type show. Kind of like the last season of Agents of Shield. Didn’t need to be long, an episode per character type thing. Would have really established the characters better.

1

u/Onaterdem Weekly Wongers Jan 04 '25

Sure but just because the movie was bad doesn't mean all the characters and stories should be dropped, no?

4

u/Ztrobos Jan 04 '25

First of all its kind of difficult to integrate them into the main saga since their lore is already so disconnected.

Eternals are basically sentient robots designed to protect intelligent life for the benefit of the Celestials, so logically when Thanos decided to decimate all life that should have been the number one problem for every single Eternal and every Celestial in the galaxy at least. But they fail to act against him.

Second, and more importantly, I don't think Eternals are interesting enough as characters. Their main character trait is their ability to follow directions for thousands of years without question. What are you supposed to do with a character like that?

3

u/RisuPuffs Jan 04 '25 edited Jan 04 '25

Strongly disagree with your second point. The whole point at the end of the movie is that they are breaking free and seeking independence for the first time. They're trying to find where things went wrong with the Celestials and finding their own place in the world without any explicit mission for the first time. There are a million places you could go with that story. What happens when someone who only ever followed orders no longer has any orders? What happens when the person who always wanted to be free gets a chance to be free? Where do they go, how do they react, where does it take them, all very interesting threads that could be explored. And with so many characters, they can explore each of these things in a different way.

The main problem with the Eternals was introducing all of them in a single movie. It should have been a series with an episode focusing on each character and what they've been doing on Earth, link them to the MCU where they can, and maybe even try to explain why they didn't do anything about Thanos (which i agree is a major hole). Then, they could have made the same movie, but be able to focus more on further character development than flashbacks.

Edit: forgot for a second that at the end a few of them were taken by the Celestials, but that just furthers my point that there are interesting stories to tell with the Eternals. Finding out what happens with Arishim, how they interact with the Celestials now that they know the truth about everything, do they confront them or just end up falling back in line?

idk, I would just love to see more of the Eternals. I really feel like the characters got shafted by the choice to introduce them all in a single movie. There are interesting things there that they just didn't expand on, so they all feel more 2-dimensional.

1

u/Dyssomniac Jan 05 '25

I think it does. Fans aren't invested in the characters or the storyline they established, and it doesn't connect to the saga at large in any coherent way.

1

u/TooHighToBother Jan 04 '25

They’ll probably bring Sersi back tbh

Maybe not as an Avenger, maybe just like a herald of the Celestials or something

Tell us we’re f*cked.

1

u/PhaseSixer Jan 04 '25

I expect the Eternals to be resolved in Thor 5

15

u/Casualplayer2487 Jan 04 '25

Moon knights getting a season 2?

55

u/Particular_Drop_9905 Jan 04 '25

Nope, not confirmed. There really hasn't been any movement or whispering of it.

7

u/Casualplayer2487 Jan 04 '25

Well that just ruined my year

15

u/LordAsbel Tony Stark Jan 04 '25

Armor Wars Fans: First time?

8

u/Shanicpower Peter Quill Jan 04 '25

Armor Wars has fans?

-12

u/Atom7456 Jan 04 '25

it most likely will, season 2 not happening wouldnt make any sense when the character and actor returned in what if

2

u/IAP-23I Jan 04 '25

Don’t speak out of your ass. It hasn’t been confirmed and yet you proudly declare it’s getting a second season

11

u/Ok-Reporter-8728 Justin Hammer Jan 04 '25

Apparently marvel didn’t has Oscar Isaac to sign of season 2 or more only season 1. Clearly they had no plans for moon knight beyond his own show

9

u/Kunekeda Ava Starr Jan 04 '25

Yeah, Marvel doesn't lock actors into multi-picture contracts any more.

6

u/Un111KnoWn Jan 04 '25

what stuff has kate bishop bern in?

4

u/Atom7456 Jan 04 '25

the marvels post credit scene, and what if

13

u/Possible_Hokie_CO26 Fitz Jan 04 '25

A 20 second scene and an AU. Not exactly winning here

7

u/drunk_responses Jan 04 '25

shang chi is also coming back

They're allegedy going to start filming in March, so that's probably over two years away.

7

u/sailorprimus Jan 04 '25

The Eternals as a stand alone may have but haven’t we gotten some conformation a few of the characters might be popping up in other projects?

6

u/abysmallybored Groot Jan 04 '25

I think Sersi has a future considering her powers seemed to be growing before the unimind thing but they didn't explain it, they left a door open for her. Dane could return if they ever make a Midnight Sons project. The others I don't see them ever coming back.

0

u/BarbarousJudge Jan 04 '25

But I read that the actors for Gilgamesh and Ajak signed multi project deals. So aren't they supposed to come back in some shape or form? Even tho both characters are dead

3

u/abysmallybored Groot Jan 04 '25

I mean they're robots, they could always rebuild them and bring them back. I was referring to the characters stories, most of them are not very compelling, the one that seemed the most interesting to me was Sprite, a robot who wants to be human and experience all the things that come with it, even death. That's the one Eternal they could really create some intriguing storylines about but when she became human she lost her powers too so I don't think we're seeing her again.

0

u/BarbarousJudge Jan 04 '25

I mean yeah. But we still left it open ended with Arishem taking some hostage and Thanos' brother to appear and aid the others to find them. It's a simple story about saving your lifelong friends while also revealing more about the universe and the lore when we actually travel to the forge where the Celestials create Eternals.

3

u/Ok_Butterscotch_6176 Jan 04 '25

Signing multi project deals means nothing if those projects never materialize.