Thanks to a surprise trailer drop this week, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings has generated a lot of excitement – but also a number of questions. One of the biggest is in regard to where exactly the movie is situated within the grander Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while we likely won't have a full answer until the blockbuster arrives in theaters, one fan has discovered that the movie already has a fun connection to Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Twitter user Leah Marilla Thomas posted a screenshot from the Shang-Chi trailer on her timeline in the wake of the footage's release, and specifically pointed followers to a familiar face in the background – namely actor Zach Cherry. You can check out her Tweet below:
If you don't quite remember Zach Cherry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's pretty understandable given that he was only featured in a single 30 second scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming. You can find him in the first act of the movie while Tom Holland's titular webslinger is featured in a montage being a friendly neighborhood hero. Cherry plays a guy at a hot dog cart who spots Spidey on a rooftop and requests that he does a flip, and he cheers when the future Avenger complies.
You can spot him in the Spider-Man: Homecoming still below:
What's additionally funny about this is the fact that this is actually the second Marvel Cinematic Universe Easter egg tied to that scene. You see that guy with a boom box? That's the same actor, Kirk Thatcher, who appears as a punk rocker in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home... and that character also sported a boom box on his shoulder (those who have seen the film may remember that he winds up annoying Leonard Nimoy's Spock to the point that he receives a Vulcan nerve pinch).
So what does this tell us about Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings? Admittedly not a whole hell of a lot – if not especially because it looks like the action in the bus crash scene in discussion here seems to take place in San Francisco (a.k.a. 3,000 miles away from New York). All we can really take away from the Easter egg is that the Zach Cherry character seems to be a magnet for superheroes.
Of the upcoming Marvel movies, Shang-Chi is second in line in 2021, as Cate Shortland's Black Widow will be hitting theaters first in July – but the wait for the kung-fu film hopefully won't feel too long after that. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the first ever Asian-led Marvel movie features an exceptionally talented cast including Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Michelle Yeoh, Ronny Chieng, and Florian Munteanu, and it will be heading to theaters on September 3.
