One of Marvel’s Best Heroes Since Endgame Confirms Their Return for Avengers: Secret Wars

Marvel is currently building hype for Avengers: Doomsday, but one star has already confirmed their return for Avengers: Secret Wars as well. The return to the Avengers movies comes after a tumultuous period in the years since Avengers: Endgame. The MCU is no longer bulletproof with critics nor at the box office, and cracks have started to show. At the same time, it hasn’t all been bad, with several great new Marvel characters introduced since Endgame, such as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu).

Indeed, one of the problems with Phases 4-6 is that interesting characters have been introduced and then not returned, something that Doomsday and Secret Wars are looking to put right. Shang-Chi is one such example, having not appeared since his solo movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which was released back in 2021. Liu was already confirmed as part of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday and, speaking with PEOPLE, he’s revealed Shang-Chi will be back for Secret Wars, saying:

“…The more immediate tease is of course, is [Avengers:] Doomsday. Yeah, which comes out next year, which I was lucky enough to be a part of and will be lucky enough to be a part of its successor in Secret Wars.

“I came away from Doomsday with like, a lot of, a lot of really fantastic friendships. Channing Tatum … I wanted to shout him out because he’s just one of my favorite human beings. And, um, I just had such a phenomenal time with him, on-set, off-set. He’s just, you know, such an admirable person.”

Shang-Chi Should Be A Massive Part Of The MCU’s Future

One of the difficult things with so many characters in Doomsday will be balancing them all, although it’s a task the Russo Brothers have pulled off before. Shang-Chi will likely be part of the movie’s Avengers team (not to be confused with the New Avengerz, formerly Thunderbolts), along with the likes of Sam Wilson/Captain America and Thor. Given Liu’s mention of Tatum, specifically, it also sounds like Shang-Chi could have some significant screentime with the X-Men, which will hopefully mean he has a decent-sized role in the movie overall.

Shang-Chi is one of the best characters introduced to the MCU in recent years, and Legend of the Ten Rings is one of the better post-Endgame movies. Thanks to Liu’s performance, he’s charismatic, fun, and brings a great fighting style to the Avengers roster, and it’ll be great to see more of that in Doomsday and Secret Wars. However, it also needs to go beyond those movies with Shang-Chi 2 (and, if that works, hopefully a third movie as well). He should be one of the new faces of the MCU, key to solo films and team-ups alike.

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Thankfully, Liu did have a positive update on the sequel, albeit a fairly vague one, saying: “There’s not a whole lot to tease right now, other than I think, I sound like a broken record at this point, but it is happening.” With Secret Wars releasing at the end of 2027 and marking the conclusion of Phase 6, then 2028 is the earliest that Shang-Chi 2 should happen. While it’s expected that there’ll be some level of reset after Secret Wars, and that the X-Men will become a greater focus, having Shang-Chi 2 be among the first Phase 7 movies would be a smart move by Marvel.

Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18th, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17th, 2027.

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