With the new that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is officially set to get the sequel treatment, and the fact that director Destin Daniel Cretton will be back to helm the ship, as well as work on a new Marvel series for Disney+, it looks like Cretton will be working in the Marvel universe for the long haul. Could that mean he’ll follow in the footsteps of the Russo Brothers, and go from directing solo character movies to helming the massive crossover blockbusters? Not if he has anything to say about it.
While the post-credits scenes of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings certainly hinted at a bright future for the character in the MCU, one that one assumes will require the assistance of several other heroes at some point, Destin Daniel Cretton tells IGN that he’s not looking to direct whatever becomes the next Avengers: Infinity War level project. He’s much more interested in following these specific characters and tackling their journey rather than building the MCU as a whole. Cretton says...
That's definitely not a hope of mine. I don't really aspire for one or the other. Once we land on the story that we want to tell, it'll define how many characters will enter that story. But I'm mainly excited to explore the characters more and their emotional journeys, and watch them grow and try to achieve things and fail, and see how they get themselves up out of the mud. So that's what I'm most excited. And I'm not sure how many characters we'll be introducing in the next one.
Rather than try to be the next director to take over the MCU, it seems Destin Daniel Cretton is happy to leave his mark on this one particular corner of it. It’s certainly not a bad way to go about it. While Cretton likely won’t be the only director who deals with this corner of the MCU, assuming Shang-Chi does have a part to play in other movies, by handling these characters himself in the solo movies he can help direct the way they go, thus making sure they’re handled the right way when it comes time for the big crossover.
And Destin Daniel Cretton says he’s already in the earliest stages of putting the sequel together. Having said that it doesn’t sound like there’s much of a plan at this point. There may be some ideas that Marvel already has planned for Shang-Chi, but for the most part it does appear that when it comes to solo movies, there is near complete freedom to do what they want, and the connective tissue gets added later on.
At some point Marvel is going to need to hire somebody for a massive crossover style movie. And it will likely be somebody who has already proven themselves in the MCU. Having said that, there’s no shortage of directors that would qualify at this point.
