When Will Marvel’s Shang-Chi Sequel Happen?

The upcoming slate of Marvel movies got a major update on Monday night, with news that Sony Pictures’ elusive Spider-Man 4 has found its director in Destin Daniel Cretton. Cretton is no stranger to the Marvel landscape, having helmed the 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and having been attached to the fifth Avengers movie when it was titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. The news of Cretton’s involvement with the film definitely delighted Marvel fans, especially since many have been waiting for updates on Spider-Man 4 for several years now. But Cretton’s involvement does raise some questions, namely — is a sequel to Shang-Chi still in the cards at Marvel Studios?

In late 2021, shortly after the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, reports had indicated that Cretton was set to return as both writer and director on a Shang-Chi sequel, with franchise star Simu Liu attached as well. Updates surrounding Shang-Chi 2 have remained few and far between, outside of Liu suggesting that the film could be released at any point after Kang Dynasty. More recent reporting indicated that Liu’s Shang-Chi would have played a pivotal role in Cretton’s version of Kang Dynasty, but that his significance in the film is unclear now that the film has been retooled into Avengers: Doomsday with Joe and Anthony Russo at the helm. 

It is pretty safe to assume that Shang-Chi’s MCU story isn’t entirely over, as fans are already theorizing that he could even provide a larger franchise crossover by appearing in Spider-Man 4. But it is still unclear at this point if and when a proper Shang-Chi sequel would happen, given the groundwork that the MCU has already started to lay. For starters, Spider-Man 4 will realistically be prioritized to be released in theaters as soon as possible, no doubt so Tom Holland’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man can then carry over into Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. After that film, Cretton is also attached to a live-action adaptation of Naruto at Lionsgate, which could very well take priority as his next project. This could, presumably, mean that Shang-Chi 2 wouldn’t start production for another few years, which would already be close to half a decade since the first film debuted in theaters.

Granted, the MCU has certainly taken longer to play off certain storylines in the past, but it would be a unique challenge to reintroduce Shang-Chi and his world after a multiple-year hiatus, unless he does play a major role in Doomsday and Secret Wars after all. While subplots like Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) taking over the Ten Rings organization and deciding to become a criminal mastermind might be left on a hiatus in the meantime, as opposed to maybe getting a Disney+ series in the old Marvel Studios regime, there would still be plenty of narrative fodder for if and when Shang-Chi 2 became a reality. Sure, we’ll ultimately have to wait and see if a Shang-Chi sequel becomes a priority for Marvel Studios — but it might not be completely out of the realm of possibility.