Shang-Chi teaser trailer shows Marvel's next major superhero in action

The first Shang-Chi trailer has arrived, showing off the next major superhero being introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie forms a part of Marvel Phase 4 and is due to reach cinemas later this year.

Simu Liu plays the leading character, with Destin Daniel Cretton (who worked with Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson, on The Glass Castle) acting as director. Tony Leung will play the villain Mandarin (the real one, not the fake one from Iron Man 3) in the movie, with Awkwafina playing a supporting role.

The Shang-Chi trailer sees the eponymous hero being trained by his father, the Mandarin, only for Shang-Chi to go against his Dad's wishes and be, well, an actual hero. There's a lot of wonderfully choreographed action and Awkwafina continues on her current trajectory of playing fun, scene-stealing characters. Watch above.

 "The most exciting thing about stepping into this character was that his backstory has never been told before," Liu told EW as the trailer was released. 

"We know so many different versions of Batman's origin story, how his parents were murdered when he was very young. We know Peter Parker, who was bitten by a radioactive spider, and he loses his uncle. Shang-Chi's story is very much unknown to most of the world, so we had a lot of freedom and creative liberty to make it the way that we wanted to."

Not quite the next Marvel movie, Shang-Chi comes after Black Widow, a prequel to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. However, Shang-Chi is certainly one of the most exciting new introductions to the MCU.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings arrives in cinemas this September, so we don't have all that long to wait to find out more about the movie. In the meantime, be sure to catch up on all the Marvel movies in order, as well as our latest Falcon and the Winter Soldier review.

Jack Shepherd
Freelance Journalist

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.