Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings will finally bring the real mandarin into the picture after Iron Man 3 faked the identity of the big name Marvel villain. For the first time, Marvel is taking us to the Asian territory as they will finally tell us a story centered on an Asian character and it’s gonna be awesome. The reason for its awesomeness is that the action in this film is going to be more physical than any other MCU superhero film.
We know for a fact that Simu Liu is going to be absolutely awesome as Shang-Chi because Marvel never really miscasts a character. The master martial artist Shang-Chi is gonna fight his way through the entire movie. But the real fun will begin when Tony Leung finally brings the Mandarin to the MCU. And according to some new Intel, he won’t be the only villain joining this film.
Coming from MCU Cosmic, a new report suggests that Marvel is currently looking for actors to play the following 4 villains in the film – Steel Claw,. Steel Claw is not someone that we find in the Shang-Chi comics, but it is entirely plausible that the character is based on Gold Claw. Moving Shadow, Razor-Fist and Ghostmaker are all villains that will be familiar to the ones who’ve red Shang-Chi comics.
A rumored plot leak suggests that the Shang-Chi movie will take place somewhere between the time jump of Infinity War & Endgame. It will see the titular hero caught up in an underground fight tournament, and these 4 secondary antagonists could be competitors in that very tournament. But the question we need to ask is that why does Shang-Chi need to join the tournament, and why is he after the Mandarin? Rumor has it that the Mandarin might turn out to be Shang-Chi’s dad. So, this film is going to be quite interesting indeed.
After all, we’ve heard that this film will be Marvel’s very own James Bond movie, and so we could look at an all-Asian super-spy team called the Agents of Atlas being introduced. Another interesting theory about the timeline of this film is that Hawkeye could actually be in the movie to form its connection with the rest of the MCU.
Clint Barton took the mantle of Ronin and became an assassin passing his own judgement all over the world. A big part of him becoming the cold blooded murderer was Asia. So, perhaps Marvel might toss him in somewhere in the film. It could just be a news headline about a mass-vigilante in the Asian territory that Shang-Chi is present in, or perhaps Jeremy Renner could make a cameo. We’d have to wait in order to find out.
But he may not be the only one returning. Perhaps we could see Ben Kingsley return in the film. And Scoot McNairy may also be in the movie since he played a role in telling the world that the real Mandarin is still out there. Although, this film will be very Asian based, and connections to the larger MCU may be very subtle. But until we get any confirmation or a trailer, all of the aforementioned details about the plot have to be taken as a grain of salt.
Marvel’s future is huge and there’s a lot that could happen. Black Widow is going to kick off the future slate on May 1. Here’s how the rest of the Phase 4 slate looks like – The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021. Following these are Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight and She-Hulk. Black Panther 2 has been scheduled for May 6, 2022.
