For Millennials. By Millennials.
The Disney+ Loki series has pretty much exploded the Marvel Cinematic Universe, jumbling up the timelines and plunging everyone into a multiversal war. When juxtaposed to it, Thanos’s pursuit of the infinity stones sounds like child’s play. Now, with every new movie or show belonging to the franchise, the first question everyone is going to be asking is, where does this belong on the MCU timeline? And many asked the same question about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Now, Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton has finally given the answer to that question.
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set for its release on September 3rd. And so, fans are eager to see the first Asian hero in the MCU. But before that, fans would like to know “when” is this movie located in the MCU timeline. And it is a relevant question, considering things are really getting confusing. But now, the director Destin Daniel Cretton has cleared all confusion. While talking to Fandango, Cretton said that Shang-Chi is set “in the present day in the MCU timeline”.
However, this present day is not the same as the one we think. By the present time, he meant right after the moment Tony Stark reverse-blipped the world with his gauntlet, killing Thanos and all his accomplices in Avengers: Endgame. However, Creton did not clearly explain where does Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings stand with respect to WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the Loki series.
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will have a diverse cast and amazing characters, says director
Apart from that, the Shang-Chi director really praised Marvel for how they handled their characters. Despite the changes, the audience always loves the superheroes they introduce, saying:
They like to change things up. I think they like to push limits within the world that they’ve created, but there’s such a cohesiveness to the world that they’re creating too, so it still all makes sense. I really fell in love with these characters as we were making [the film], I think that is something that Marvel continuously does well, is create characters that you can really relate to. And then the most obvious thing is that this is an all Asian and Asian-American cast, which, for me personally, is extremely exciting to have been able to be a part of.
For the first time, Marvel is making a superhero movie centered around an Asian lead. And we’ll see the lead character Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) overcome his troublesome past and other challenges. Apart from Liu, we’ll be seeing Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, and Benedict Wong in supporting roles. And to top it off, we might be seeing Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. And with the clarity of knowing where it stands on the MCU timeline, fans can enjoy it to the fullest.
Moreover, Disney announced that they’ll be releasing Shang-Chi exclusively in cinemas and not on Disney+. They might have learned their lesson after Scarlett Johansson sued them for Black Widow.