Avengers: Doomsday Is Way Too Late for Shang-Chi’s Return
We should have had at least one more Shang-Chi movie before Avengers: Doomsday.
No one was really too worried when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings broke from the usual MCU model by following its final post-credits scene not with “Shang-Chi will return,” but rather “The Ten Rings will return.” After all, the second post-credits scene showed Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing taking her father’s place as the new head of the terrorist organization, so it made thematic sense. And Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was an enormously entertaining film, so surely Simu Liu would be back soon as the title character, right?
Turns out, the answer is, “Wrong.” Shang-Chi has been missing from our screens since 2021, and will finally return in Avengers: Doomsday. According to Liu, the wait was worth it. “I was so stunned by the fan response to the first film … [and it] definitely set off some sort of expectation in my mind that the character journey would be paid off somehow,” he told Empire. “When Doomsday came around, I was like, ‘This feels right.'” Happy though we may be for Liu’s feelings about his character, we respectfully disagree. We should have had at least one Shang-Chi sequel before Doomsday.
For those who have been following the steady onset of superhero fatigue, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a pleasing outlier. For most, fan interest peaked with Avengers: Endgame, which put a nice button on the shared universe experiment that we’ve all been enjoying. No, COVID did not help, nor did the decision to follow Spider-Man: Far From Home, the first MCU movie released after Endgame and proper hit, with the lackluster prequel Black Widow. But generally, MCU movies have felt more shoddy since 2019.
Along with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and the cameo-laden mega-hits Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine, Shang-Chi is a rare, under-appreciated bright spot. Liu puts in a star-making performance as a West Coast slacker who reveals himself to be the Master of Kung Fu, forced back into action to confront his warlord father Wenwu, played by the legendary Tony Leung. While the movie does devolve into sludgy, stock MCU visuals in its final act, director Destin Daniel Cretton manages to bring enough Wuxia influences to make the film feel distinctive, giving the MCU its best action sequences.
By the time Liu stood toe-to-toe with Ryan Gosling as a rival Ken in Barbie, it was clear that we should have had multiple Shang-Chi sequels in production. But that never happened.
On one hand, we can see why. After Shang-Chi, Marvel moved Cretton to the big leagues, tasking him with directing the next two Avengers movies, The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. Presumably, Cretton would have taken Liu with him, making Shang-Chi a centerpiece of the latest incarnation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
But between the tepid response to Kang’s proper debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Kang actor Jonathan Majors’ off-screen behavior getting him fired, Marvel decided to radically refocus. Gone was The Kang Dynasty from the schedule, replaced by Doomsday. Now, Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo would return to helm the film, moving Cretton to Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Between Brand New Day‘s huge box office numbers and the excitement around Doomsday, it’s hard to argue that Marvel made the wrong choice. But still, we can’t help but be annoyed by the lack of Shang-Chi.
The MCU has long tried to do multiple genres within its franchise (remember people saying Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a paranoid thriller?), but rarely had it done so as well as Shang-Chi. The character’s kung fu fighting style feels distinct from the choppy brawling and CG laser-blasting common to other entries. Furthermore, Shang-Chi as a character puts an interesting twist on the core MCU hero archetype. Like Tony Stark, Shang-Chi has to atone for past mistakes, albeit those of his destructive father instead of himself. When he wears the ten rings, he too feels the temptation of corruption. Finally, there’s Liu himself, a winning screen presence who has all the charisma we want from an MCU hero.
That last point may be the most salient, given that Shang-Chi has rarely carried a solo book long since his first appearance in 1973’s Special Marvel Edition #15, by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin. Shang-Chi absolutely has his fans, and he’s recently benefited from an excellent run by Gene Luen Yang, one of the best writers working today. But he’s hardly been an A-lister on the level of the other Avengers.
With Liu in the lead, Marvel could have used Shang-Chi to give the franchise a new direction and properly expand the line. We’re certainly happy he’s back in Doomsday, especially given a prominent set piece against Channing Tatum‘s breakout Gambit. But this should have been the latest in a string of adventures for Shang-Chi, not a long-awaited return.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives December 18, 2026.