Shang-Chi 2: Simu Liu "Relieved" Destin Daniel Cretton Returning for Marvel Sequel

Star Simu Liu and director Destin Daniel Cretton are back in action for Marvel's Shang-Chi 2. Just weeks after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings shattered Labor Day opening weekend records, Marvel Studios made it official: Shang-Chi will return in a sequel with Cretton back as director. Studio chief Kevin Feige also confirmed Cretton, a Marvel first-timer alongside Liu, will develop a Disney+ series potentially spinning out of the blockbuster Shang-Chi. Cretton joins Black Panther filmmaker Ryan Coogler as a talent tapped to oversee a new television series in the wake of their new property's record-breaking success.

"It confirms what I already believed, which was that he was very emotionally invested in this character and this world," Liu told The Hollywood Reporter of Cretton. "Also, I was very relieved, because we need him." 

Like most Marvel directors, the Short Term 12 and Just Mercy filmmaker saw the potential for future stories even before Shang-Chi kicked up the highest-grossing domestic box office of the year so far.  

"While we were on set, we were already throwing ideas around of what other things we could do in another movie," Cretton said. 

Feige — who has hinted at Liu's return in a future Avengers 5 after the studio officially named Shang-Chi a new Avenger — previously revealed the creative team devised "many ideas" for Shang-Chi and Katy's (Awkwafina) next team-up elsewhere in the MCU. 

"The early reactions to the characters and to [Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings] itself gives me great hope that that people will want to see more of these characters," Feige told ComicBook in August. "We certainly have many ideas of where to take them and where to put them. What's so fun, we know the movie's working when it's not just the title character that people ask about, but it is the co-stars or the supporting players that people ask about."

"And in this movie in particular," added Feige, "that's heartening because we think they're spectacular, and we think they have great potential in the future."

Cretton will write and direct the untitled Shang-Chi 2. Marvel Studios has not set a release date. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now streaming for all subscribers on Disney+. 

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