While there have been plenty of tantalizing details dropped about Shang-Chi And The Legend
Of The Ten Rings, we haven't gotten a chance to see how the film will look until now. A
newly-released teaser offers plenty of clues for what fans can expect. Here's what you
may have missed.
The Shang-Chi teaser trailer makes it clear from the get-go that the character played
by Awkwafina is a very important one. She's seen at the hotel-slash-resort that Shang-Chi
works at, grabbing drinks and singing karaoke with him, and later crashing a bus through
San Francisco as Shang-Chi fights some bad guys. Even if Marvel told us nothing official
about Awkwafina's Shang-Chi character, we're given enough to infer what her role in the
film is: she's Shang-Chi's close pal who knows absolutely nothing about his past life working
as an assassin-in-training under the Ten Rings.
Thankfully, both Marvel and Awkwafina have actually told us a bit about the character.
Her name is Katy, and Awkwafina can't wait for fans to meet her. The actress told StyleCaster
in a December 2020 interview,
"There's a little bit of me in every character I play, which is a good and bad thing. I do
feel like I can relate to her. She is thrust into a world where she doesn't really know
what to do. At the same time, she's discovering things about herself."
Awkwafina also admitted that she "can't say much about the role," which could suggest
that there might be more to Katy than meets the eye. Or it may be that Awkwafina is simply
abiding by Marvel's zero-tolerance policy on spoilers.
Regardless of whether Katy's the everyday friend to balance out Shang-Chi's larger-than-life
superhero adventures or if she has some secrets of her own, having a super-talented star like
Awkwafina in your movie basically guarantees a good time.
"We make a good team!"
Early on in the film's teaser trailer, Shang-Chi and Katy are seen at a karaoke bar. It's a
sweet moment to establish their friendship but it actually holds more meaning than you
might realize. If you look at the screen behind Shang-Chi and Katy, you'll see that it reads,
"Over sideways and under." These are lyrics from a Disney classic: "A Whole New World,"
the defining tune from 1992's Aladdin.
Since the Walt Disney Company owns Marvel Studios and all its properties, Shang-Chi
and Katy singing "A Whole New World" makes for a fun little nod to the huge universe
under Mickey Mouse control. Plus, Shang-Chi star Awkwafina also recently voiced the dragon
Sisu in Walt Disney Animation Studios' Raya and the Last Dragon. Additionally, Aladdin
is one of the very few non-white stories from the Disney Renaissance era of animation, so
the reference to it in the Shang-Chi teaser trailer highlights the importance of diverse
narratives.
In terms of its connection to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, "A Whole New
World" ties into the movie's theme of being stuck between two different worlds, just as
the titular Aladdin does in his own film. Shang-Chi has two lives — as a Ten-Rings-trained
assassin and as a normal guy working at a hotel in California — and the two are going
to collide in major ways. Those who know him from one life will be brought into the "whole
new world" of the other, and we can't wait to see how it plays out.
One of Iron Man 3's better plot twists reveals that the Mandarin, the supposed leader of
the Ten Rings terrorist organization, is actually Trevor Slattery, an out-of-work actor that
A.I.M. hired to pretend the accidental Extremis explosions were terrorist attacks. The trailer
for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings shows that there is, in fact, a real MCU Mandarin
— but he isn't as comic readers remember him.
In the comics, Shang-Chi has two claims to fame: He's a master martial artist, and he's
the son of the immortal Chinese sorcerer Zheng Zu , who was originally the character "Fu
Manchu." However, in the MCU, Shang-Chi is the son of Wenwu, the man who narrates the
movie's trailer. Marvel no longer has the rights to Fu Manchu.
More importantly, the Shang-Chi teaser trailer implies that Wenwu is actually the Mandarin,
who appears in front of a wall with a circle of ten rings on it at the 1:00 mark. Based
on what's shown in the teaser trailer, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' Mandarin
appears to be a combination of the original comic incarnation, who uses ten rings of power,
and Zheng Zu.
Poor Trevor was last seen getting kidnapped by a henchman of the real Mandarin in the
MCU short, All Hail the King. Could we possibly see the fake Mandarin come face-to-face with
the real one in Shang-Chi?
"It's complicated. Hey it's complicated."
"Uncomplicate it."
At several points in the Shang-Chi teaser trailer, there's a man wearing a black, white,
and red mask. The footage doesn't reveal the man's identity, but some quick internet sleuthing
tells us that he's the Death Dealer, aka Li Ching-Lin, clearly one of the adversaries
Shang-Chi will take on during the film.
In the Marvel comics, Li is a double agent of Fu Manchu's pretending to work undercover
in his organization for MI6. After Li is deemed too dangerous, the director of MI6 tasks Shang-Chi
with taking out the agent. Shang-Chi defeats Li in combat, but the latter is able to get
away. Fu Manchu eventually gives Li the nickname "the Death Dealer." Shang-Chi and the Death
Dealer go on to face off against one another several times in the comics.
The comic history between the enemies isn't lengthy, so we expect to see an expansion
on the pair's brief story in Shang-Chi. Since most of the Death Dealer's story in the comics
revolves around his relationship with Fu Manchu, it's likely his backstory will be lightly
changed to swap Fu Manchu for the Mandarin.
In the teaser trailer, the Death Dealer is training Shang-Chi while he's a young boy,
whipping him on his back as he tries to perfect him. It appears as if the Death Dealer is
working with Shang-Chi at the direction of his father the Mandarian, which would make
the Death Dealer a member of the terrorist organization the Ten Rings. It also looks
like the Death Dealer's student will eventually become the master, as the pair come to blows
twice in the trailer — with one fight sequence involving some Bucky Barnes-esque knife skills.
There are plenty of characters who make an impression in the new Shang-Chi and the Legend
of the Ten Rings teaser trailer. But one in particular is incredibly memorable despite
only appearing a handful of times. A couple times in the trailer, a dude with a literal
sword for a hand shows up to make trouble for Shang-Chi. If you're wondering who this
sharp fellow is, he's none other than the MCU version of Marvel Comics villain Razor
Fist.
Razor Fist made his debut in 1981's Master of Kung Fu series, quickly establishing himself
as a thorn in the side of Shang-Chi and his allies. In the comics, three different men
have gone by the name Razor Fist, and they all happen to be brothers whose hands get
cut off and replaced with swords — Douglas Scott, William Scott, and William Young. Simply
put, this is not a family tradition that anyone should try to emulate. In any event, all three
of these Razor Fists are master martial artists, and have all pestered Shang-Chi at one time
or another — or sometimes at the same time. What a family!
In the film, Razor Fist is going to be played by Romanian boxer-turned-actor Florian Munteanu
, who previously appeared as Viktor Drago in Creed II and is set to play Krieg in the
upcoming Borderlands film.
Continuing the trend of character reveals without any explicit details, the teaser trailer
also gives us our first look at Shang-Chi's sister Xialing, played by Meng'er Zhang. Interestingly
enough, Xialing isn't a Marvel Comics character. She appears to be inspired by Shang-Chi's
many sisters and half-sisters from his long history in the pages of Marvel Comics, and
we're guessing one of the biggest inspirations for Xialing comes from the comic book character
Esme, the daughter of Zheng Zu, who is also Shang-Chi's father. In the Marvel comics,
Esme is the champion of the House of the Deadly Dagger and goes by the alias Sister Dagger.
She eventually becomes the commander of the Five Weapons Society, to which Shang-Chi is
the rightful heir.
According to leaks for the Marvel Legends toys for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten
Rings, Xialing and Shang-Chi are estranged, but that changes when Shang-Chi asks his sister
for help in defeating the Ten Rings. The toy description also notes that Xialing has to
decide whether to stay reclusive or join her brother in his quest. From her appearance
in the teaser trailer, where she's seen standing like she's prepping for battle, it looks like
she chooses the latter.
Even though Shang-Chi is a force to be reckoned with in the main Marvel Comics universe, he's
an unknown within the MCU. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will mark his movie
debut, and many viewers might not know what he's capable of. The teaser trailer demonstrates
that Shang-Chi is a master fighter, but at 1:07, he passes his hand through water that
seemingly defies gravity and time. You probably wonder how he's doing this, and the answer
is, more than likely, he isn't.
In the comics, Shang-Chi is the son of a sorcerer, but he didn't inherit any of his father's
magic. He's a straight-up martial artist, trained to surpass the peak of human performance.
Skilled in both freehand and armed combat, Shang-Chi is essentially the type of character
Bruce Lee liked to portray in his movies. He could probably outfight someone like Spider-Man
or Daredevil, but he probably wouldn't stand a chance against the Hulk or Thor.
This knowledge brings us back to the slow water scene in the Shang-Chi and the Legend
of the Ten Rings teaser trailer. Given Shang-Chi's shock in that particular moment, odds are
that event is the result of the Mandarin's ten rings — depicted as armbands in the
film. In the comics, a race of alien dragons forge the rings, which possess a variety of
powers including a pocket darkness shroud and matter rearrangement. Granted, we don't
know if these origins or abilities will be directly transferred from comic pages to the
big screen, but the teaser shows the armbands glowing, so they clearly aren't just for decoration.
With any luck, Shang-Chi will add the armbands' borderline-supernatural powers to his own
preternatural abilities before the movie's end.
An exciting chase sequence that involves a bus and a dump truck features prominently
at the end of the Shang-Chi teaser trailer, and we see where this chase takes place when
San Francisco's famous Ghirardelli Square comes in the picture. As countless movies
readily attest, the streets of San Francisco are a prime location for a cool car chase
— and since Ghirardelli Square is full of all sorts of nice platforms and fountains,
one couldn't complain should the action transition from vehicular mayhem to an elaborate fight
scene on the square itself.
Incidentally, the fact that a part of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings takes place
in San Francisco raises a possibility for a potentially massive cameo — or a tiny
one, as the case may be. After all, Scott "Ant-Man" Lang and Hope "the Wasp" van Dyne
are both active on the area, and it's highly unlikely that they'd ignore a giant car chase
with supernatural kung fu overtones on their turf. Could Shang-Chi give fans a tiny dose
of Quantumania before the size-shifting heroes return in their upcoming third movie? Anything's
possible.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set for a September 3 debut.
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