Simu Liu had the best reaction to Shang-Chi’s announcement for Avengers: Doomsday, but fans think it's "criminal" there hasn’t been a direct sequel

You may have noticed we got a massive cast update on Avengers: Doomsday yesterday. Over a dozen stars were announced for the upcoming Marvel movie, including the return of Simu Liu as Shang-Chi. Although we’re all glad to see him back at long last, there’s some disappointment it’s in such a large team-up film.

Liu was revealed as part of the mammoth livestream from Marvel Studios to celebrate the start of filming on Avengers: Doomsday. Over the course of hours, we learned who'd be in the heroic team facing Doctor Doom through their set chairs, Liu being one of the announced stars, among the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Letitia Wright and Patrick Stewart.

On X/Twitter, Liu reacted to the announcement by making it seem like he'd been at karaoke the whole time (some of us wish we were doing the same). There's a lot of excitement about him finally coming back to the MCU, especially since it may finally give us Shang-Chi 2.

"It's absolutely criminal that we never got a Shang-Chi 2 before Doomsday," a commenter on Reddit states. "Still can't believe we ain't having Shang-Chi 2. First movie was amazing and then they just stopped," another says.

Development on a follow-up to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been going on since the first came out. Director and-co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton is still attached to Shang-Chi 2, though the current status is unknown.

At one point, Cretton was supposed to direct Avengers 5 as well as Shang-Chi 2, before stepping away from the massive crossover to focus on the smaller scale direct sequel and the TV show Wonder Man. He's since taken on directing Spider-Man 4, which is expected to arrive in July 2026.

There have been some contributing factors to Shang-Chi's disappearance from our screens. The Hollywood strikes in 2023 stalled everything, and Liu tore his Achilles tendon in late 2023, ruling out any intense action films until he recovered.

This at least demonstrates Kevin Feige and Marvel are still keen to keep the heroic martial artist in the fold. Hopefully we get Shang-Chi 2 updates soon. For MCU productions in the immediate vicinity, have a look at our guide to The Fantastic Four: First Steps.