We haven't seen or heard from Simu Liu's Shang-Chi since he made his MCU debut in his own solo movie, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, back in 2021, but we have repeatedly been assured that Marvel Studios does have big plans for the character.
There's been no official word on a sequel since it was announced shorty after the first movie's release, but Liu remains confident that it is "definitely" going to happen.
“A lot of it is above my pay grade, but it’s definitely happening,” the actor recently told The Press Trust of India. “[I’m] just very excited to kind of work on it and it’s going to be amazing. I really can’t say anything beyond that.”
Shang-Chi will likely appear in at least one of the upcoming Avengers movies, but it's now come to light that the Master of Kung-Fu was originally going to play a major role in The Kang Dynasty prior to the project being revamped.
According to Inverse, "in the original plan for Avengers 5, then called Kang Dynasty, Shang-Chi would've been one of the film's main leads."
Marvel was forced to make some big changes to the story following Kang actor Jonathan Majors' assault conviction, and we got word during this year's San Diego Comic-Con that the movie is now titled Avengers: Doomsday, with Tony Stark actor Robert Downey Jr. set to make his MCU return as Victor Von Doom.
Shang-Chi could still factor into the film, of course, but it sounds like his role may have been significantly reduced.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027. Both films will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Have another look at some photos Downey Jr. shared to Instagram after the big reveal below.