The first trailer and images of Marvel’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the Infinity Saga now over, the MCU is moving forward with its highly-anticipated Phase 4, which will not only cover movies but also TV shows that will be directly linked to the movie side of this extensive universe. Phase 4 will also introduce a bunch of new characters, and the first one in line on the movie side is Shang-Chi.
The hero will make his MCU debut in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and with Simu Liu playing the title character. The movie will follow Shang-Chi as he’s drawn into the first trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings gave viewers a taste of the tone of the movie and the type of action they can expect, which falls into the MCU’s style but also offers very different battles never before seen in this universe, and the first batch of official images also give a good look at the overall vibe of the movie – and they also hint at the appearance of a mythological creature in the MCU.
Although they might seem like an odd addition to a universe with superheroes and villains, dragons are no strangers to the Marvel Universe, and comic book fans are well acquainted with many of them. In the MCU, however, these creatures haven’t been seen much but they have appeared before, most notably in one of the official images from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings shows the title character holding a gun – a long, Chinese staff weapon used in martial arts, and some details in it point at the appearance of (more) dragons.
The ends of Shang-Chi’s weapon are covered in dragon scales, which may have a reason to be there other than being decoration related to the origin of the staff, as they might grant the magical powers or added strength, but they could also be a subtle but clever hint of dragons in the MCU. Fans have been theorizing that Shang-Chi will either introduce or make way for the arrival of subtly teased in Iron Man many years ago), the movie could open the doors for other dragons to appear in the MCU in the near future.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has the potential of opening a lot of doors for the MCU that can bring a variety of characters – heroes, villains, and not all of them human – further expanding this already extensive universe and treating Marvel fans to some lesser-known characters that can make it big outside the comic book pages.
