On April 18, Simu Liu and the rest of the world were treated to something special for the Kim’s Convenience star’s birthday: the first Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer. Liu stars as the eponymous character, who existed in Marvel Comics lore for nearly 50 years. Now Shang-Chi is finally making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, and with just a few months to go until the big event, Marvel Studios has dropped a new trailer teasing what’s to come in the martial arts-centric flick, highlighting Shang-Chi’s conflict with Tony Leung’s Wenwu, a.k.a. the real Mandarin.
Although Ben Kingsley was initially presented as The Mandarin in Iron Man 3, it turned out he was just an actor named Trevor Slattery who was hired to play the role of The Mandarin. Then the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King came out, and it was revealed that The Mandarin was real and leading the Ten Rings terrorist organization. Now we’re finally meeting him in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and in the MCU continuity, he’s Shang-Chi’s father, having allowed his son to life live a life of his own for 10 years, and now demanding he come back to join the family business.
Well, just like his comic book counterpart, Shang-Chi isn’t interested in a life of villainy. So although Wenwu had Shang-Chi trained to be one of the world’s greatest fighters, now father and son will be pitted against one another, with not just physical blows exchanged, but also weaponry and energy attacks being broken out. But Mandarin is just one of the many combatants Shang-Chi will face during his first MCU appearance, from other skilled assassins to some kind of underwater monstrosity.
If you thought all that was exciting enough, like so many MCU movie trailers have in the past, the new Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer saved a surprise for the end. The movie will see a martial arts tournament being held, and look one of its combatants…
Yep, he looks a little different than when we last saw him in The Incredible Hulk, but Emil Blonsky, a.k.a. Abomination, is back in play! Evidently someone managed to get him to participate in this fighting tournament, and while it’s unclear how much screen time Abomination will get in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, it’s nice to know he’s getting another film appearance under his belt before returning for Disney+’s She-Hulk series.
As for his opponent in the ring, the action moves quickly, but it looks like Abomination might be fighting Wong, Doctor Strange’s fellow Master of the Mystic Arts! If it is, this MCU movie clearly didn’t skimp on the cameos. And as the final bonus from this preview, it appears that the fighting tournament is being held in Madripoor, a location we visited in the MCU earlier this year in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Along with Simu Liu and Tony Leung, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings also stars, Awkwafina as Katy, Michelle Yeoh (who previously appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as Aleta Ogord) as Jiang Nan, Fala Chen as Jiang Li and Florian Munteanu as Razor First, among others. Just Mercy’s Destin Daniel Cretton directed the superhero feature and co-wrote the script with David Callaham and Andrew Lanham. This will be the MCU’s second Phase 4 movie, following two months after Black Widow and arriving two months ahead of Eternals.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings punches its way into theaters on September 3. Get caught up to speed on everything else the MCU is sending to the big screen with our upcoming Marvel movies guide.
