Marvel Repeated The Same Black Widow Villain Marketing Tactic In Shang-Chi
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a rather unique addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This movie introduced us to a character that has a completely different origin compared to most of the other MCU characters. Somehow the movie managed to give us both the history and the futuristic implications of a whole new world that was left out in the previous MCU projects. The movie managed to receive a great critical response and at the same time, fans were treated to a wonderful experience. While the movie was a unique solo venture attempt in the MCU it did stick to some of the tropes of other projects in the franchise. Let’s take a look at this Black Widow villain marketing issue that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings continued.
Shang-Chi
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings explored the origin of the character of Shang-Chi as he gets to explore his past. The movie begins by introducing us to the character of Wenwu who has the Ten Rings and is the father of the protagonist Shang-Chi. He is supposed to be the primary villain of the movie as we see him putting everyone in danger for the sake of his own interests and desires. This is not actually the most important villain considering the finale introduces us to the Mega Soul Sucker. The latter is more powerful and has a major chance of leading an impending doom to the world.
Marketing For The Villains
The trailer and other marketing that was done for this movie showcased that Razor Fist and Death Dealer might actually have some of the major fights with Shang-Chi and that they might play essential antagonists. While the trailer for the movie lets us know that Wenwu would end up being the prime villain. He holds the Ten Rings that also play an essential part in the storyline that we get to witness in the movie. The previous two characters do give us a major fight scene with Shang-Chi but just as soon as Wenwu arrives these two characters do get reduced to mere side roles.
All this is reduced to nothing in the very finale of the movie where we see all these characters become nothing compared to the giant monster the Dweller-in-the-Darkness. Death Dealer is quickly killed off as his soul is sucked by one of the soul eaters. Razor Fist takes the good side and helps the villagers of Ta Lo fight the Soul Eaters. Wenwu is killed quite similarly and he does a heroic act before dying and hands over his Ten Rings to Shang-Chi.
Similarities To Black Widow
The trailers give us a treatment of Wenwu as the primary antagonist and at the same time is also hints at Razor Fist and Death Dealer to be working for him and being “the most dangerous people in the world”. This is quite similar to the way Taskmaster was introduced in the Black Widow trailer and other marketing done for the movies. We got to see him mimic the fighting techniques of some of the major characters of MCU and it was rather exciting to see this character ends up using these capabilities when using against Black Widow. The movie only uses some limited traits of the character from the comic books only to end up pushing the character to the background.
It is rather clear why the trailer treats these characters like that including the marketing. The comic book fans get excited for an opportunity to see these villains appear in the movies while we only get to see quite less than what we expected. The major problem this serves to this movie could be how the fans didn’t get to explore the storyline that they were promised in the trailers. At the same time, it does keep some of the plot details in wraps so that there is a massive reveal for the audience.
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