The Marvel Cinematic Universe has established itself quite well over the years with multiple projects and it seems to be still going massive. Each of the projects from the franchise has been able to give us a story in itself while at the same time being a part of the larger narrative. Recently, we have gotten two major additions into the franchise with Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings and Eternals. There are a lot more interesting parts of the MCU world we will get to explore using these narratives and these characters. Amongst the various plot holes we have seen from the franchise, a recent one seems to be working around the Ten Rings that were introduced. Not showing the secret origin of the Ten Rings in Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings seems to have actually worked out for the narrative.
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings
Shang-Chi was amongst the most successful projects from the MCU last year in terms of introducing a whole new character to the franchise. The movie was able to introduce a wide variety of characters with some exciting narratives to explore going ahead. This was the first solo venture for an Asian-origin character in the MCU. The movie was also able to make some interesting corrections to the franchise with the character of Xu Wenwu. There was a lot that the movie was able to show with the Rings in terms of their power and how long they had been in the possession of Wenwu. But the movie did not have any indication towards the origin of the Rings in the MCU.
Deleted Origin Of The Ten Rings
There were even plans for an origin story for the Rings during the development of the project. During an interview with Inverse, screenwriter Dave Callaham talked about two scenes that were actually supposed to explore the history of the Rings. He mentioned:
There were scenes shot for the movie that suggested one origin. There were scenes shot later that suggested a different origin. We didn’t know which one we wanted to say it was.
We intentionally chose that as the final version. We realized, in these two hours, it doesn’t make any difference at all where it comes from. That’s not the story we’re telling. But it sure is an interesting question we’d love to talk about later. Or someone will.
Not Showing The Origin Actually Worked
The movie was able to give a lot to be drawn from the Rings. We saw that the Rings actually reflect on the user’s distinctive personality with them appearing blue when Wenwu used them and appearing orange when Shang-Chi wields them. There was a lot that the movie was actually trying to give us with a fresh hero appearing along with a whole new universe that has not been shown in the franchise before. If the movie actually dived into the origin then this would have killed the intrigue that existed for them and at the same time affected the plot.
The major part of the movie dealt with Wenwu’s conflict with Shang-Chi and his sister Xialing and this was the major narrative of the movie. This meant that the origin story won’t actually have made an interesting addition to the project. The movie was already affected by the ending that had a large CGI battle with the Dweller in Darkness. It actually ends up driving a lot away from the family conflict that was the prime focus of the movie.
In a much better way, the chance of exploring the origin is left for the sequels and actually hinted at in the post-credits scene. This will allow for a better narrative in the sequels to properly use this as a narrative and actually build something original. This was done before in the case of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 too. Here, we weren’t told the reason behind the abduction of Peter Quill but the sequel actually took the narrative there and explored this. Fans will have a lot more excitement with the sequel now that we will get to see how MCU deals with the origin of The Rings.
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