The Falcon And The Winter Soldier May Be Setting Up Some Big Shang-Chi Connections

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier may be building some big connective ties to the upcoming Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Episode 3 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier took things to a new part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the island city of Madripoor. The Southeast Asian port is a haven for criminals, murderers, and even worse types. It's in Madripoor where the mysterious "Power Broker" rules with an iron fist. Between the Power Broker and Madripoor, there are several Marvel Comics clues falling into place that point toward Shang-Chi.

Warning: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 3 SPOILERS Follow!

The big key to this theory is the Power Broker. In Marvel Comics the Power Broker name has been used a few times, but the relevant one is Curtiss Jackson, the original criminal to use the "Power Broker" name. Jackson was part of a larger criminal-political organization called "The Corporation" which had dirty fingers in all kinds of pies: assassination, blackmail, theft, and even power augmentation. One scheme The Corporation took on was in a bold attempt to forge a new alliance, with criminal mastermind Fu Manchu.

Fu Manchu (later retconned into sorcerer "Zheng Zu" for legal reasons) was the leader of a vast criminal empire - and happens to be the father of Shang-Chi. We know that elements of Fu Manchu/Zheng Zu are being merged with The Mandarin for the origin story of Shang-Chi in the MCU. If the Ten Rings organization is what fan theory suspects (and MCU stories have shown), it seems like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier paving the road through Madripoor and the Power Broker seems too coincidental to be ignored.

Of the three main story points that have been introduced for MCU Phase 4, the happenings of the espionage/criminal underworld post-Blip have been the most mysterious. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been flying especially far under the radar, compared to Black Widow, TFATWS, or Hawkeye - all we really know is that the filmmakers have teased a martial arts epic with some truly Shakespearean drama at its core.

Shang-Chi trains all his life to be a living weapon - only to find out his father, The Mandarin (Tony LeungChiu-wai), is one of the biggest villains in the world. It seems like that evil influence could easily be at work in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It'll be interesting what we learn when the mysterious Power Broker is finally revealed.

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier is now streaming on Disney+.