By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Pop quiz: which character do you think was done dirty the most by the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It’s tempting to name characters who had a strong start and were suddenly dismissed, like Ms. Marvel. It’s also tempting to name characters whose big projects keep getting sidelined, including Blade and Rhodey. Arguably, though, nobody has gotten a rawer deal than Shang-Chi. Back in 2021, he headlined one of the biggest movies of the year, and he seemed poised to become the next major MCU superhero. However, his sequel has been stuck in development hell, and he has been absent (at least, in live-action) for over half a decade.
For fans, the good news is that this character is finally coming back in Avengers: Doomsday later this year. However, those same fans can’t help but wonder why so much time has gone by without the hero appearing in so much as a post-credits scene. Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu recently expressed his cheeky annoyance with a social media post joking that he’s filming a documentary about what his character “has been up to for the past five years.” However, the answer is as simple as it is depressing: Marvel’s cancellation of Avengers: Kang Dynasty ruined years of plans for Shang-Chi’s character!
Avengers: Shang-Chi Dynasty
So, I know what you’re asking: how does the cancellation of an Avengers movie screw over Shang-Chi? It all starts with the man behind the camera. Originally, Kang Dynasty was going to be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the same man who directed the first Shang-Chi. Unsurprisingly, Cretton wanted to put his first major Marvel hero front and center, and Inverse previously reported that Shang-Chi would have been a central character in that major blockbuster. And one of the reasons this martial arts master was going to be front and center was because he was fairly intimately tied to Kang himself.
Remember the post-credits scene from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? Our kung-fu king discovers that the Ten Rings are a millennium old and made of a material nobody really understands. Plus, they act as a beacon by sending out some kind of mystery pulse into the cosmos. Marvel never followed up on it, but what was this scene about? Considering that Kang’s technology symbols in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania looked very similar to the Ten Rings, many fans have speculated that they (along with Ms. Marvel’s armband) are lost Kang technology, and the beacon was meant to summon Kang or one of his Variants to Earth 616.
Multiverse Of Cancellation
According to fan theories, various bits of Kang’s technology would serve as the new Infinity Stones: powerful artifacts that our heroes would have to gather before the conqueror could. On top of this, a leaked trademark revealed what might have been the title for the Shang-Chi sequel: Shang-Chi and the Wreckage of Time. This further points to how important Simu Liu’s character would have been in Kang Dynasty: not only would he be leading the Avengers, but his sequel would have had him dealing with the fallout of defeating Kang. Unfortunately, Kang actor Jonathan Majors’ legal drama led to Marvel entirely pulling the plug on Kang Dynasty.
For the most part, this decision was for the best. After Kang Dynasty got the axe, Destin Daniel Cretton got to direct Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is about to become the highest-grossing film of all time. Meanwhile, Marvel brought back both the Russo Brothers and Robert Downey Jr. for Avengers: Doomsday, arguably the most ambitious blockbuster ever made. Unfortunately, Simu Liu was the collateral damage. Shang-Chi was meant to headline the next big Avengers movie and then get a bigger, better sequel. Now, all he gets to do is square off with Gambit in a movie crammed with dozens of other characters.
Will things ever get better for this character? At this point, all we can hope for is that Marvel uses the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars reset to do what they should have done years ago: make Shang-Chi relevant again!
