Shang-Chi Reportedly to Introduce Key Marvel Super Spies

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is reportedly filming right now and details about the film are slowly trickling out. Now, a report from Charles Murphy says that the movie will introduce some Marvel super spies. These characters include Black Jack Tarr, Clive Reston, and Leiko Wu from the company’s stable of MI-6 characters. It would make sense to have these characters be an entry point for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Murphy is saying that the film will be centered around an emotional journey that sees Shang-Chi reconnect with his past in MI-6 and come across some of the people he used to work alongside. The source also describes a bit of a romantic subplot with Leiko Wu having some shared history with the main character, echoing the developments in the comics.

This new phase presents a ton of directions that Marvel can turn after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Shang-Chi creator Jim Starlin hopes that the company takes that freedom and runs with it. He would like if some of the more troublesome elements from the comics didn’t make an appearance in the hero’s first on-screen adventure.

“I can’t imagine them starting off with anything but an origin story because you got to begin somewhere,” Starlin told Comicbook.com last year. “I think it will be loosely based on what we did over the first few issues…I only did three issues of the book. I imagine there will be some eliminations like Fu Manchu, thank God.“

“With Shang-Chi, I’m really curious because the trick is with that is to get a hook on it that will take it away from the millions of other kung fu movies that have been produced beforehand,” Starlin added. “You know, we don’t want just another Bruce Lee movie, we want something different, something really entertaining. I’d be curious and can’t wait to see what kind of hook that they get to take him in that direction a little bit different than where he’s been before.”

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier this fall, The Eternals on November 6, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 in May 2022. Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel series have also been announced.