Warning: SPOILERS for Shang-Chi.
When is Spider-Man: Far From Home progress the timeline to 2024.
This has put the MCU slightly in the future of the real world, but delays to Phase 4 and properties set almost immediately after Avengers: Endgame has allowed the gap to slowly close. Loki set in a place outside of space and time altogether. So where does that leave Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and its two post-credits scenes?
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings begins hundreds of years ago with a small Spider-Man: Far From Home. However, there might be some confusion on the specific place of the movie within Phase 4's timeline due to its varying chronology. Shang-Chi showed how Wenwu met Li in 1996 and how they married shortly thereafter, with Li giving birth to Shang-Chi in late 1996 at the absolute earliest. Based on that timeline, Shang-Chi left his father and the Ten Rings in 2010, met Katy the same year, and the rest of the events of the film take place in 2020, which is 10 years later. However, that doesn't gel with the >post-Endgame timeline, meaning Shang-Chi must've been born around 2000 for it all to work. This would also work with the "Gangnam Style" reference, since Shang-Chi says he was mistaken for Korean because of that music video, which was released in 2012.
Setting Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings sometime in 2023 or 2024 would make the most sense with how Phase 4 is largely playing out. It allows Marvel Studios to introduce a new MCU hero at a fresh entry point to the larger narrative with minimal hoops to jump through. Marvel can avoid needing to address why Shang-Chi didn't lend a hand in fighting Thanos at the end of Avengers: Endgame or make him yet another snap victim to explain where he was during a turbulent moment in the MCU. Plus, it puts him in a position to be the hero of his story without the Avengers or a devastating global event overshadowing him.
Other references to the MCU's timeline that help viewers pinpoint the movie's setting are Wenwu's nod to Aldrich Killian's attempt to use the identity of "The Mandarin" and the return of Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings clarified Wenwu's stance on the "Mandarin" moniker when he recounted how a terrorist used the name "some years ago". With Trevor finding himself at home with Morris in Wenwu's cellar and sporting a long mane, the place Shang-Chi takes in the MCU's timeline is more than likely late 2023 or early 2024.
Considering that Shang-Chi's friendship with Katy had the opportunity to blossom for ten years (meaning Xialing started leading the Ten Rings without hesitation and Shang-Chi immediately sought the help of Wong, Bruce Banner, and Carol Danvers to understand how the Ten Rings worked.
Even though Marvel Studios primarily explores Shang-Chi's story after Avengers: Endgame, his solo movie still expands the MCU's past. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings shows brief moments in history where Wenwu ruled with the aid of the Ten Rings and also featured Shang-Chi at various points in his life with the use of flashbacks. In Wenwu's eyes, ten years isn't a blip, so he wasn't worried about not seeing his son. Flashbacks to Shang-Chi's younger days and the origins of the Ten Rings' enrich the MCU's history as well and let Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings travel to different points in the timeline without being bogged down by the wider franchise.
