Could Shang-Chi have been the main face of the Multiverse Saga if things had gone differently?
If everything went right with Shang-Chi — better third act, Part 2, more setup — could he have been *the guy* for the Multiverse Saga like Tony was for the Infinity Saga?
Commentaires
Maybe the roster can also tie into other MCU projects, not just Shang-Chi
>shows earnings
"I know"
You're exhausting and your God frowns upon your behavior.
You guys are/were overestimating the popularity of most of the characters introduced in this saga.
Some valet with kungfu and magic rings ain't leading the Avengers which includes a literal space god and the leader of an African superpower.
Even with the rings, probably still would unless Chang Chi was trying to kill him
He's the only other character fully confirmed to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir.
Thor fully looks up to Cap as something to be emulated and respected.
Chang Chi is none of those things.
His super power is being the most correct always. Fight me Civil War Tony apologists.
Also audiences got greedy, everyone wanted thier favorite version of thier favorite obscure character, Ironman and Thor were kinda nobodies until they got put center stage with attractive actors paying them. So Marvel tried all these smaller, newer, and yeah more diverse characters and it just didn't hit the now saturrated comic movie market the same as when previous nobodies got thier own movies.
That's the difference between a hardcore fanboy, a hardcore fan, a casual fan and just a casual audience member.
Shang Chi, Ms Marvel, Shuri, etc...are only popular amongst the hardcorde fanboys. Hardcore fans are a mixed bag. Casuals don't give a shit, as shown by box office results and ratings.
Echo is one of the best examples. Her very few fanboys love her. Fans have a mixed reception. Casuals never watched the show.
but a lot of Marvel movies at that point stopped airing in China altogether, NWH being the higgest example and still breaking a billion
As a result he kind of got lost in the post kang shuffle.
Well, after watching Marvel Zombie (which I believe has been in the works since at least 2021, when the What If episode came out and they still hadn't changed their plans for Kang), I had a strong feeling that this might actually be the plan: in the series, not only is the rings and bracelets given great prominence, but we see them both as the main protagonists, almost as if to foreshadow their future roles.
The real question, however, is: even taking into account that the two Avengers films were originally supposed to come out in 2025, what the hell did they have in mind for Shang Chi? Khamala would have had her own show and The Marvels in between, while there were no plans for Shang after 2021. Could the situation with China have made everything worse?
I haven't watched Iron Heart so I don't know if that remedies any of the issues with Riri. As for Kate, I really liked her a lot but I can see how people might find her extremely immature personality grating. That's something that should level out as the character matures though.
All that to say, you can dislike all of these things without the implied sexism because unfortunately Marvel has been pretty bad at handling its female stars/characters.
1. "Bros saying the movie sucked before they watched it or it was released" (in response to why Captain Marvel wasn't the face of that saga)
2. "A good segment of the fans just hate Captain Marvel, these same fans also didn't like...etc etc"
I'm just saying that people not liking those characters isn't in any way indicative of them being that kind of fan, because there are lots of genuine reasons not to enjoy the projects they've been in. Unfortunately there's kind of an assumption for a lot of folks that "I don't like these characters" means "I hate women," but these characters have also just been kinda badly handled. Whether or not that's what you meant, it *sounded* like you were saying the people who didn't like those characters/films are the same people who disliked Captain Marvel for being a woman, and that's not necessarily the case.
Black widow was horribly mistimed.
Captain Marvel was okay but she was not an interesting enough character to carry a franchise. I don't know if Kate got the same hate as others.
They could have. They could have given her a genuine friend amongst the Kree and in the climax Carol has to choose in some way between rescuing Maria or rescuing said friend, she picks Maria, somehow the friend survives anyway and swears revenge. Such a lost opportunity.
And while there were those who were saying they sucked before watching them, there were those like me, who was excited for all of them and left disappointed. The only one of those that I didn't leave completely disappointed for was Hawkeye, and that's mostly because of how much I liked Kate and Yelena.
The character and actor were well received, they deserved better.
Or would you prefer to have never had that?
Again, loved the movie but I feel like maybe it should have been a show since those are usually one shots. And some of the shows (i know they would be too long to be a movie) should have been a movie, since large MCU canon events happen and some people dont watch the shows.
How do you think producing even more going to help?
I recently rewatched Shang-Chi, and it was fantastic.
Not having a follow-up is absolutely bizarre.
This isn't the comics where an appearance is as easy as an artist taking five minutes to draw someone.
*what if?*
Could he have been the main face of anything? Sure as hell not. His movie did well but it was some of the very first material to bring across the point that the MCU cannot be a huge cultural phenomenon anymore after Endgame.
It was basically the first Phase 4 film with a proper theatrical release that featured the origin story of a brand new fresh face, yet it still didn't manage to grab most people. Simu Liu is neither as charismatic nor as mass appealing with the hand of abilities/origin his character was dealt.
That we'll see him at all in Avengers, at least kinda proves that there was some value in that film and he has earned his audience, but not much beyond that.
I would have liked to have seen a film already with Dr strange & clea mixed in with the post credit scene of Shang chi, which looked like it could have been really interesting. Not convinced those things will appear relevant in dooms day.
Shang-Chi would’ve filled an “experienced” mentor/leader role for the Young Avengers probably though, and he would’ve been the most likely spiritual “Captain America” of that movie (especially considering Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of Shang-Chi, was directing Kang Dynasty)
Also will die on the hill that the Ten Rings were meant to be a Kang thing and after they moved away from Kang they just didn't really know what to do with that plotline anymore
The rings being tied to Kang and Destin originally set for Kang Dynasty kinda pushed things back. But they could’ve easily when the grounded street level route.
His film was a small success. And that's all there is to it. He never caught on like Iron Man or Black Panther. He's more akin to the new Ant-Man. The face of Phases 4-6 was meant to be T'Challa, but real-life got in the way.
I don't think making Kang black was a coincidence. I'm positive the plan was to tweak Kang's origin so now he's a relative of T'Challa instead of a relative of Reed Richards.
The beacon in his rings may still hold a major part in Doomsday. Like most people, we assumed it was a beacon to Kang, but since that ship has sailed I'm thinking it's a beacon to Loki.
Can’t help but wonder if the film was primarily written as an apology/damage control for the Mandarin fake out in *Iron Man 3* and the butchering of the Hand by the clearly racist Jeph Loeb.
Hence the mythological critters and what-not
He is not even in 2 movies
But I could see a solid Doc Strange and Shang-Chi team up.
It's hard to tell Shang Chi's potential after one movie, it's not like we could tell what Steve, Tony or Thor would eventually become after 1 movie - but then they each got 10 hours of screen time and fleshing out within like 3 years, and then, yes, you could very much see that these characters had something to them.
Shang Chi though? I dunno. We literally haven't seen shit from the man. He was there for one movie, played a decent character... and then he was gone. No character development, no different character dynamics, no different situations to judge the character, no nothing. So what is there to base any opinion on?
For all we know they coulda made Madisynn the center of the MCU... if they had just decided on giving any single character more than 5 minutes worth of character building. There was just absolutely nothing to center anything around other then Yelena being like the first newly introduced character to ever get something even just remotely resembling a character arc in the last 20 MCU projects - and now they *finally* have managed to come up with an interesting character that people are understandably hooked on. Shang Chi though? Had a decent movie, that's all there's to him.
The elephant in the room was definitely Black Panther due to Chadwick’s untimely death. Even with dealing with multiple universe by Phase 4 it made recasting difficult due to timing.
His arc seemed limited to becoming the hero at best and a capable fighter. That doesn’t scream focal point to me.
Had they adjusted from that starting point towards a trajectory of leadership, it would have felt forced to me.
As a comparison, I feel the same way about Ant-man. Had they shifted Scott towards anything more than caretaker to the young avengers, it would have felt silly to me.