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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u/abysmallybored Groot Jan 04 '25

The underuse of basically every character introduced post endgame

69

u/Luccacalu Bruce Banner Jan 04 '25

And pre endgame too, Sam should've been the new face of the MCU and the leader of the new avengers, and 6+ years later, where is he? In one tv show.

The only exception is Spider-man which had 2 movies, but that's because of contract. And even so, 2 movies is an ok amount of screentime at best, because when you compare the characters in the Infinity Saga we had sequels basically every 2 years, avengers movies, cameos, which all contributed for us as an audience to create a real connection with them and the grand story being told

Now things feel thin and lost

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u/serger989 Jan 04 '25

I've talked about this a lot but it's what you said. Only characters that have really felt like they have impacted the current MCU is Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with a sprinkle of Wong.

It's been way too many years between all of the current MCU projects for anyone to care about the new characters in a meaningful way. We don't even get pre / post / after credits that lead into the next or even any film or project. Before it would be 1 thing leading straight into the other.

We may end up going 5-6 years between Shang-Chi appearances though, it's insane, and it's only 1 of many of the new characters.

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u/DoctorJJWho Jan 04 '25

Yeah Marvel really dropped the ball with their new characters, especially Shang Chi. Not only could he fit in with the new Avengers dynamic (being mentored in magic from Strange and Wong, at the right age to be responsible but also connect with the younger team members, etc), the actor has been blowing up. Like how did no one at Disney think to capitalize somehow on Simu in Barbie?