Today, Marvel Studios released the first trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, one of the four movies the company is bringing out in 2021 after the coronavirus pandemic caused shifts in the movies’ release schedules.
And while I’m a casual Marvel fan whose knowledge of its heroes comes largely from the movies, there’s already something refreshing about seeing a new face added to the mix in the form of Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi. Liu marks the franchise’s first Asian lead, and that’s already a nice change after a majority of films and TV shows in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been led by white characters.
But really, it’s just nice to be getting away from the Avengers and the fallout of Infinity War and Endgame and onto characters the general public is less familiar with. A lot of my favorite MCU movies were about characters I knew very little about going in, such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther. So Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is already enticing to me. Plus, it’s probably going to be one of the only new casts we’ll be seeing in the MCU for awhile, as this and Eternals are the only two movies announced for the next few years that aren’t based on established heroes.
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The TV shows airing on Disney+ are in a similar boat. WandaVision focused on the titular hero dealing with the grief that comes with the loss of your robot husband and…then getting exonerated of wrongdoing for the fucked up shit she did. Falcon and the Winter Soldier is ongoing (you should check out our recaps) and focuses on Captain America’s best friends. And Loki is coming up soon, and while it’s certainly focusing on new aspects of the universe, it’s still about an old favorite.
So yeah, I’m ready to see a new hero in action when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings comes to theaters on September 3. Check out the trailer below:
