Shang-Chi Director Reveals Alternate Ending Where Major Character Survived

As is the standard with most blockbusters these days, not everyone makes it out of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings alive. It only happens that the Simu Liu-starring movie featured an on-screen death more significant than most. As it turns out, there was one version of this movie where the character in question made it out alive, but it wasn’t in the cards as production kept moving along.

Big-time spoilers up ahead for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. You know the deal, proceed with caution if you’ve yet to see the blockbuster.

Towards the end of the film’s third act, the freshly unleashed Dweller-in-Darkness sucks the soul right out of Wenwu (Tony Leung), killing him once and for all. This gives Shang-Chi (Liu) the Ten Rings and allows him to eventually beat the dark dragon. Shang-Chi helmer Destin Daniel Cretton made sure to point out in one recent interview that there was a version of the movie where Wenwu made it out alive.

“Some things just work and some things don’t. We’re constantly searching for the version of the story that feels most authentic to the characters,” Cretton recently told Entertainment Tonight. “I mean, even though these characters are operating on a very operatic level, there’s still things that you try that just feel like cheats. And that was one of them. But, you know, also in the MCU, anything can happen.”

The movie then ends with a post-credits scene that may or may not set up Fin Fang Foom, as Cretton teased in the same interview.

“If you look into the comics, if you watch that end-credit sequence, it’s not– You don’t have to dig very deep to at least point yourself in a direction. (Laughs.) It’s definitely there,” the filmmaker added.

Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, which is now in theaters.

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