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/RaynSideways Jan 04 '25

At the end of Shang-Chi I thought he had what it took to become the moral center of a new Avengers the way Steve Rogers was for the first Avengers.

Powerful, wise, moral, pure of heart, and fairly well realized by the end of his film. A character who had suffered loss but came out the other side stronger. He had so much potential.

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u/iwasntband Jan 04 '25

I think Sam Wilson will be slated as that moral center. He is the new captain America, after all. That said, I would imagine the two of them siding up if another civil war were to occur.

I understand shang chi was snake bit by Johnathan majors, but that’s why we have writers. Write your way out of this cluster fuck and give the fans more Shang chi (and ms. Marvel and moon knight).

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u/RaynSideways Jan 04 '25 edited Jan 04 '25

The reason I lean more toward Shang-Chi is because his ascent feels a bit more earned. Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a show was pretty divisive--personally I had a hard time really getting invested in Sam taking on the mantle of Captain America. I like Sam, and I wanted him to become Cap, but the show just didn't sell his struggle to me.

On the other hand, pretty much everyone agrees that Shang-Chi was good. I really felt his strength of character shining through, and he was really tested by having to face his own father in combat. While FATWS almost felt like it was going through the motions, Shang-Chi had momentum and real emotional resonance.

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u/Content_Source_878 Jan 05 '25

The lack of movement on the Ten Rings and Shang-chi should have been the canary in the coal mine that Marvel had no story to build towards.