Marvel Fans Debate What Shang-Chi Has Been Doing the Past Two Years in the MCU

It’s been exactly two years since the release of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Marvel fans have thoughts on what all Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) has been up to in that time. 

As you can see in some of the biggest Marvel fan threads right now, there’s a lot of imagination and debate taking place on this subject. Despite the one-and-done nature of his presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now, there are still big things expected of Shang-Chi’s character as the Multiverse Saga heads into its cumulative events, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. As such, fans have plenty of ideas about how Shang-Chi is preparing for that fight! 

Shang-Chi: Master of the Ten Rings

As Marvel fan “Eclipsiical” kicked off the idea that Shang-Chi has been putting his time to good use by mastering all ten of those rings, while not yet jumping into superheroism: 

My best guess is he has been mastering his control over the rings since they were passed down to him from his dad and he wants to honor his memory. But I don’t think he has been actively superhero-ing. He didn’t seem to be the type that wanted a lot of publicity, he just wanted to live a normal, down-to-earth life and appears to have returned to that. Most people wouldn’t even know he was a superhero because his battle against the Dweller-in-Darkness took place in another dimension.

As stated, there is no immediate obligation for Shange-Chi to become a globally recognized superhero, simply based on the events of the first film. Aside from being filmed during his bus battle against Ten Rings enforcers, or his match in the underground fighting circuit, Shang-Chi’s capabilities and achievements are only known to a select few. Shang-Chi returning to Ta Lo and doing the full extent of his training with the Ten Rings could end up being a pivotal story detail when we next see the character. 

Shang-Chi vs. The Ten Rings 

Eclipsiial and other fans have also pointed out that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ended with the post-credits reveal that Shang-Chi’s sister, Xu Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) was going against his wishes and continuing the Ten Rings crime syndicate, as its new leader. Eventually, brother and sister will have to come to blows – or maybe they already have. As fans point out, a lot of ground could be covered if we learn Shang-Chi has been going the Avengers-route – i.e., spending the time between films hunting down and battling his sister’s crime syndicate across the world. It’s an easy route to explaining the development of Shang-Chi’s powers and experience level between his onscreen appearances – as well as any team bonds he may have formed while on his mission. 

Avengers Wait List

Other fans like PharaohOfWhitestone are choosing to take a more humorous look at the delay on any more Shang-Chi content in the MCU, by comparing it to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man waiting by the phone for Iron Man to deliver that Avengers phone call: “I’m kinda imaginging him spam calling Wong similar to how Peter called Happy, just waiting for his next meeting to find out more about those rings. In reality, he’s probably just gone back to his life as normal. The fact he hasn’t shown up yet makes me thing there isn’t a proper unified Avengers yet, so he’s just chilling in San Fran.”

Whatever the case may be, one thing is sure: Marvel fans want more Shang-Chi sooner before later! For now, you can stream the first film on Disney+.