SUBSTANTIVE SPOILERS FOR THE SHANG-CHI MOVIE BELOW!
–
–
–
–
I went to see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings the weekend it released. It functions very well as a standalone, and is overall very entertaining. I would definitely recommend seeing this one in a theater, unless you’ve got a bad ass in-home theater set up at. But I digress… here are some of my questions and speculations. As well as the observation that Marvel used this opportunity to retcon almost the entire plot of Iron Man 3; i.e. changing the Mandarin’s (Trevor Slattery’s) back story, and the origin of the “10 Rings” group.
My first question that wasn’t answered was how did Shang’s father (Xu Wenwu) live so damn long? Per the cut-scene, the rings did not originate on Earth. So we’ve got an alien artifact that (we’re assuming) grants immense power and long life. Now, this is probably just me grasping at straws, but I feel like the rings are a Shi’ar weapon. They were known for conquering huge swathes of galaxies, and are extremely technologically advanced. But that still doesn’t answer what they are, or what exactly the beacon within them is for.
Screen Crush’s Ryan Arey speculates that the rings might be Marvel’s take on the Quantum Bands worn by Captain Mar-Vel, Quasar, etc. The interesting thing he points out about the Quantum Bands is that you have to be ‘worthy’ in order to wield their full power, but they can still be utilized at a lesser capacity by someone who isn’t worthy. Shang-Chi’s “worthiness” is possibly highlighted by the fact that the rings were blue when Xu Wenwu was using them, and changed to gold when Shang-Chi got them (coincidentally this is also when Wong felt the power and noticed that it was a beacon for something/someone).
My next huge question is kind of in two parts; Ying Nan (Michelle Yeoh) says that they “protect y[our] universe” from the evil beyond the gate. The giant soul sucking dragon couldn’t have been in a tiny cave or all those years. So where does the gate lead? The Dark Dimension? Dormammu would be a pretty fitting villain to flesh out in coming movies, but it takes away from the pizzaz of it all if we’ve already been introduced to the big baddie. I’m proposing one of a few options: the ever-mentioned Annihilus, a Kang variant, or one Sise-Neg. My money is on the latter. More on that in a bit. The second part to that question is; what did she mean when she specified “your universe” and how does that realm between realities fit into the greater MCU?
Next, I’d like to highlight the Wong vs. Abomination fight at the beginning. Abomination making an appearance could allude to Thunderbolt Ross giving Emil Blonsky some freedom to see how he acts unsupervised, further reinforcing the widely held fan-theory that the Thunderbolts are ever approaching in their MCU debut. Baron Zemo, U.S. Agent, Taskmaster, Ghost, Abomination, and any other super-baddie currently making residence on the Raft. I suspect that the Swordsman will be the final addition to that lineup, and will come to fruition in the upcoming Hawkeye series. (November 24th!!!)
Another easter egg I caught was the inclusion of “Razorfist”. I didn’t catch on until you saw his name on the car Shang and friends stole when escaping Xu’s compound, but Razorfist has a fairly significant fight with Wolverine in the comics. Couple that with the Princess Bar cameo in Madripoor in FATWS, and I think ole’ Kevin Feige’s trying to tell us something without actually telling us something. Maybe a certain Huge Yak-man is coming to the MCU?
Second to lastly; Bruce Banner’s cameo at the end of Shang Chi presented the fact that he’s no longer Professor Hulk. There are several running theories here, but the one that I think has the most merit is that when he snapped everyone back in Endgame, he had a vision that eventually led to him returning to his non-hulk form. The basis here is that when Thanos snapped his fingers, he saw Gamorra in the Soul Realm. In the since-deleted scene, when Tony snapped his fingers, he saw his daughter Morgan in the Soul Realm. So that begs the question, if this is a constant, who did the Hulk see? Conventional wisdom might suggest Jessica Walters (She-Hulk) but there’s a theory suggesting that he saw Maestro. I don’t know if I put very much stock into the Maestro theory just yet, as there are too many unknown variables right now.
Lastly, Sise-Neg. He’s a being from the 31st century that can wield magic, and has developed a method that allows him to time travel without compromising his existence in the future. Now that we know how these things work (a la Endgame and the Loki series), and coupled with the fact that he’s a nexus being (like Scarlett Witch), it only makes sense for him to make an appearance in the MCU. I should also mention that at one point he endeavors to go back in time to steal Merlin’s power, only to be stopped by Doctor Strange.
In summation, Shang-Chi opened a whole lot of possibilities for the MCU, and created even more questions. So as always, let me know your thoughts and questions down in the comments!