It feels like this shouldn’t really be much of a surprise since Shang-Chi is a Marvel character and as anyone knows at this point if an MCU character is popular enough they’ll be coming back without hesitation. But there was talk of this before the movie was even out, so the faith the creators of this movie have in this process is pretty strong if they were imagining that Shang-Chi would be this big of a hit. One thing that’s slightly annoying but is pretty typical at this point is that Shang-Chi and the ten rings are thought to be among the most skilled and powerful aspects in the MCU at this time, much as Captain Marvel was the strongest, and before her the Hulk, and Thor, and so on and so forth. Every MCU character and their weapons broaden the franchise when it comes to how strong and skilled they are, and at the moment, Shang-Chi is the new guy on the block, and therefore he’s going to be getting the most attention for now. But the great thing is that he is a very needed addition since, despite the failure that was Iron Fist, the MCU currently doesn’t have any heavy hitters in the martial arts.
The ones that were there either failed miserably or were canceled long before they should have been. But there is a question of where a sequel would go and what it would involve since now that yet another villain is dead, sorry, spoilers, it’s a question of what will be next for Shang-Chi. The upside is that there’s always someone left in the MCU to fight since villains are plentiful and heroes have this bad habit of fighting amongst themselves from time to time. Before anyone gets too loud about how Shang-Chi could mop the floor with this or that person, it’s better to think about what challenges might lie ahead and how he’ll be further integrated into the MCU.
There are plenty of storylines no doubt to keep him busy and it’s likely that he’ll be one of those individuals that might not be given as much swagger as some of the heroes, but will still have enough to make it known that he’s not some chump off the street. It might be kind of fun to pore through the many different Marvel titles to see who might be a good match for Shang-Chi, since like it or not, he’s still human, and no matter how tough the ten rings are it’s fair to think that someone would come along that might make him think twice about going head to head. It might even be fun to see if there’s a possibility of pitting him against Gamora at one point since she’s supposed to be the deadliest woman around. Hand to hand, it might actually be a good fight since as an assassin, Gamora is insanely deadly. How the story would bring them together though is kind of tough to think about at the moment since it’s not really certain how the sequel to Shang-Chi is going to go. But whatever it is there’s definitely a belief that it will be headed in the direction of Avengers 5 since it’s been stated that Simu Liu wants in on that movie.
However it happens, and it does feel as though it’s going to happen, the MCU is changing in a big way and will no doubt keep changing since stars are aging out, retiring from the franchise, and heroes have passed on in the movies, so it’s easy to think that things will have to keep progressing in a manner that will keep the MCU growing, expanding, and adapting to new faces that are technically old faces but given a new lease on life in the franchise. The heroes and villains still to come are likely going to usher in a new era with each new movie since by this time next year, Shang-Chi will be an MCU veteran and it’s likely that we’ll be seeing the renewal of the MCU yet again as more heroes are welcomed in and more villains are given the motivation they need to be a serious threat to one world or another.
One of the only downsides is that there will be a lot of retconning going on out of necessity for a while until the events of Endgame are finally in the far-flung past. Once that happens and the rebuilding from those times is over and done with, whatever’s left will be what people move forward with, and it’s a big hope that they’ll continue to honor the movies that came first. The MCU wasn’t even known back when Iron Man first came out. People knew about Marvel Comics, but the cinematic universe had yet to exist. Shang-Chi is just one out of many heroes that are bound to make the MCU even greater, but it’s very likely that he’ll be another key player.
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