Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings made a respectable $432 million when it opened in the post-pandemic landscape back in 2021, and with a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, it remains one of Marvel Studios' best-reviewed Phase 4 titles.
The epic martial arts movie put Simu Liu on the map. Unfortunately, the character has been sidelined ever since and it's now been close to three years since we last saw Shang-Chi on our screens.
Destin Daniel Cretton is expected to helm a sequel - rumoured to be titled Shang-Chi and the Wreckage of Time - after walking away from Avengers 5. However, he's thought to be busy working on Disney+'s Wonder Man series for the foreseeable future, leaving fans to wonder whether a Shang-Chi follow-up will ever become a reality.
Responding to a fan on Threads who shared their belief that Marvel Studios has "abandoned" the Shang-Chi fanbase, Liu responded by saying, "I prooomiss it's happening."
Assuming the plan is to reveal the connection between the Ten Rings and Kang (or perhaps the Multiverse in general following Jonathan Majors' firing), then Shang-Chi 2 really needs to be released before the next Avengers movies. If so, the stage could be set for the greatest martial artist alive to be a major player in the Multiverse war to come...
"Oh man, I don't know to be honest," Liu said last month after being asked when Shang-Chi is likely to make his MCU return. "I mean, those things are so above my pay grade. I just wanna continue to be a fan of it. You know, when I get a call of like, 'Hey, this is what your in and this is where you're going to show up. And, this is when you're going to be need to be blacked out for.'"
"That's kind of generally what tends to happen. But, you know Destin is such a special filmmaker and we're very happy to have him on the sequel. So, he'll be working on that and we're really excited to see what he comes up with. I think he's going to do a brilliant job."
"There are a lot of ideas that we had in the opener, and some of those ideas are planted as questions, by the end of our movie. There are things that we potentially want to explore in the future," the Barbie star continued. "Everything changes so much, so it’s hard to say how many of those ideas will actually make it to the finish line, but there are many of them there."
Shang-Chi 2 doesn't currently have a confirmed release date.