Marvel had a tough choice to make after Avengers: Endgame. It could continue playing the hits, relying on nostalgia and familiar faces to coast until the next event movie, or it could introduce a new generation of heroes to freshen up the MCU.
To its credit, Marvel Studios opted for the second option – but it didn't work out exactly as anyone hoped.
As great as it was seeing diverse faces run around the cinematic universe, Ms. Marvel, Echo, and the Eternals all failed to live up to what came before. It says a lot that Kevin Feige has course-corrected for Avengers: Doomsday, bringing back the likes of Thor, Steve Rogers, and several legacy X-Men characters to be front and center instead of placing considerable trust in the new guard.
Welcome to Road to Doomsday, GamesRadar+'s weekly MCU rewatch series. Over 15 weeks, we'll be revisiting each Marvel movie and TV show on Disney's list of essential movies to watch ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, sharing our thoughts upon rewatching and deciphering what we can learn about the next Marvel mega-event from each entry. Why not relive some MCU highlights and watch along with us?
With a few exceptions, that is. Florence Pugh's Yelena has, of course, shone since her Black Widow debut. But no one quite held their own like Simu Liu's Shang-Chi.
Released in 2021, when Tony Stark's Endgame sacrifice was still fresh in the memory, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings may have been a wordy title, but was refreshingly simple in how it cemented its hero as a major player in the MCU thanks to a potent mix of killer fight scenes and sparkling wit.
Shang-Chi doesn't waste time getting moving. In the opening minutes, the ancient Ten Rings – weapons of immense power – are established and, in the present day, the group that shares the same name attacks Shang-Chi on a bus, standing out as one of Marvel's best individual action sequences.
From there, Shang-Chi leads us on a lightning-quick journey, bouncing from kinetic set-piece to kinetic set-piece as he becomes wrapped up in a family drama that adds a more personal touch that has largely been absent in Marvel's recent films. It also adds a splash of mysticism and mystery to the MCU, something that has been sorely missing, making the universe feel a lot deeper and richer before it became distracted by the multiverse.
Yes, the final act is way too CGI-heavy, and Trevor Slattery's long-overdue return is tonally jarring, but Shang-Chi soars when it should stumble. Coming out of COVID, everyone expected this to fail. In the end, it won audiences over with charm and style to the tune of over $430 million.
A hard-hitting newcomer
Now, on to Doomsday. Shang-Chi going AWOL in the MCU in the past half-decade has undoubtedly been one of Marvel's biggest misfires, failing to capitalize on the momentum of the character while director Destin Daniel Cretton went on to break box office records helming Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
That won't be the case in Doomsday. Carrying on from Bruce Banner and Captain Marvel contacting him in the Shang-Chi post-credits, the new holder of the Ten Rings is seemingly going to be treated as a big deal.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings may have been a wordy title, but was refreshingly simple in how it cemented its hero as a major player in the MCU thanks to a potent mix of killer fight scenes and sparkling wit
The Doomsday trailer even teases just how much Shang-Chi will be getting involved, pitting him in a mouthwatering clash against Channing Tatum's card-dealing Gambit.
It's a great case, too, for a simple superhero maxim: who would win in a fight? Already, we can't wait to see the martial artist and the mutant butt heads as the multiverse collapses around them.
Even better, it immediately elevates Shang-Chi into an Avengers-level hero without feeling like he's been shoehorned in. He belongs alongside the X-Men, the Avengers, and anyone else who might accompany them in the fight against Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. That's high praise indeed.
So, before you head into Doomsday this December, make sure you're familiar with Shang-Chi. If you missed it the first time round, you're in for a spectacle filled with the sort of action scenes that clearly marked Destin Daniel Cretton out as a perfect fit for Spidey, as well as platforming Shang-Chi as someone who could hang with the best of them. If you are back for more, it's time to get reacquainted with the holder of the Ten Rings. He just might be more important than you think in a few months' time.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is available to stream now on Disney Plus, ahead of the release of Avengers: Doomsday on December 18.
Look ahead with our list of upcoming Marvel movies and check out how to watch the Marvel movies in order ahead of your next rewatch. See you next week as we revisit Spider-Man: No Way Home.
