Disney has just released the second trailer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Asian superhero movie Shang-Chi And The Legend of The Ten Rings and it is action packed. The trailer opens with a young version of Shang-Chi (played later by Simu Liu) and Tony Leung’s Wenwu telling him of the titular rings, “If you want to them to be yours one day, you have to show me you are strong enough to carry them.”
We then flash through scenes of Shang-Chi’s training, his “normal” life as an adult, a battle on a moving bus with Razor Fist (Florian Muneanu) and, finally, a confrontation with Wenwu.
One of the most interesting sections of the trailer is a briefly shown battle with a giant, possibly abominable character inside a ring. Fans quickly began speculating that the giant is Hulk’s archenemy, Abomination.
The character was played by Tim Roth in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Kevin Feige announced at December’s Disney Investor Day that Tim Roth is reprising the character in the upcoming She-Hulk Disney+/Marvel series. It’s a good bet that, if the trailer does indeed reveal the character, Roth is playing it.
THE ABOMINATION IS BACK IN SHANG-CHI GIVE ME A MOMENTpic.twitter.com/qS6Po9hm0J
— Aniq ⎊ (@aniqrahman) June 25, 2021
“Shang-Chi’s main problem in his life is rooted in not knowing who he really is,” says Destin Daniel Cretton, the film’s director and one of the writers. “He has to learn how to own every part of himself. If he doesn’t allow himself to look at all of it—the good, the bad, the light and the dark—and to own it all, he won’t be able to reach his full potential.”
Shang-Chi And The Legend of The Ten Rings will be the first MCU movie released over Labor Day weekend. Unlike Black Widow, which will be theatrical and day-and-date on Disney+ Premier on July 9, Shang-Chi is getting a 45-day theatrical window.
Simu Liu stars as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. The film also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu and Ronny Chieng. The pic was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and Charles Newirth served as EPs. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay.
The movie is the first Asian-fronted title for the MCU and it could truly change the fate of the Labor Day weekend box office as a launchpad for tentpoles. If Marvel can open summer, who says they can’t end it too? (This year is an exception as we come out of Covid; Disney pushed Black Widow out of the first weekend of May to second weekend of July).
Shang-Chi’s first unit production paused back in March 2020, as Cretton self isolated himself after consulting a doctor and being tested for Covid-19. The director took extra precautions given his newborn baby. Cretton’s test came back negative. Production fully resumed at Fox Studios in Australia back in July as the country came out of the pandemic lockdowns.
