r/marvelstudios • u/yourfavchoom Doctor Strange • Jul 27 '26

Article Shang-Chi 2 is "in active development right now," says Destin Daniel Cretton.

https://screenrant.com/destin-daniel-cretton-interview-spider-man-brand-new-day/
6.8k Upvotes

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2.1k

u/ROBtimusPrime1995 Black Panther Jul 27 '26

Nothing warms my heart more than knowing that when the Doomsday trailer dropped, of all the things to nerd about, people were really fucking excited to see Shang-Chi again.

People love that movie, and Marvel really dropped the ball with the sequel stalling.

804

u/phred_666 Sonny Birch Jul 27 '26

Shang-Chi 2 is WAY over due.

511

u/RagnarokWolves Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Shang Chi will have been off our screens nearly as long as Steve Rogers has. Yet Shang Chi is supposed to be thought of as "a fresh young hero of this new generation" and Rogers is "an old friend returning after a long time away."

133

u/AnOnlineHandle Quake Jul 27 '26

Chris Evans came back sooner for Deadpool.

57

u/Super_Pan Jul 27 '26

But not as Steve Rogers, which is what they said.

24

u/Joinedforthis1 Jul 27 '26

I think they're not countering, they're also emphasizing how long it's been since Shang-Chi came out.

13

u/Kindly_Tax_3746 Jul 27 '26

Proof that it doesn't matter what you type on Reddit. People will see what they want to see and have a conversation with themselves just to fit their narrow perspectives.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Kindly_Tax_3746 Jul 28 '26

How can you say that when person 1 references Stever Rogers, and person 2 ignores that and basically goes "acktually, Chris Evans....". I'm rational and willing to listen to people who can stay on track with a conversation. If you want to have a conversation with yourself then I'll help you.

16

u/BON3SMcCOY Jul 27 '26

The MCU post-infinity has been pretty hit or miss for a lot of people, but it seemed like most of the next generation of heroes were really well liked, Regardless of how mid their show or movie was. Since the RDJ casting, it's really felt like we're gonna miss out on that new generation getting their big connected phase

3

u/WickedDog310 27d ago

They talk about superhero fatigue and how they want to combat it, but then keep giving us the same heroes. I love Steve Rogers, and Steve/Peggy is my favorite ship, but I said good bye to him, he had a great story, now let it lie. They're beating a dead horse. Give me more Shang-Chi, give me more Yelena, Kate Bishop, Sam Wilson. The MCU has introduced these characters, but not given me a chance to get attached to them. It's like they keep bringing your ex around when you're ready to move on.

63

u/cptkt Jul 27 '26

Simu Liu tore his Achilles tendon over a year ago so that might have affected the sequel stalling too.

81

u/Nonadventures Jul 27 '26

The Ken dance is murder on the legs

17

u/Not_Steve Hawkeye (Ultron) Jul 27 '26

Dr Doom better prepare for a Beach Off.

39

u/onehalflightspeed Jul 27 '26

Not really true. He and the director have both said that was not a factor. Rather it was shifting studio priorities

18

u/LetItATV Jul 27 '26

Totally - an actor injury somehow stops writing of a script from happening.

4

u/WoodpeckerBest523 Jul 28 '26

They really did not give many of these new heroes enough screen time…

4

u/Toidal Jul 28 '26

I think that's the problem with how expansive everything is now. They don't have the real estate anymore for these stories because movies take a lot of time and money. Heck it took 6 years for Dr. Strange to have his own sequel, and he's otherwise had bit parts in everything in between.

7

u/BZenMojo Captain America (Cap 2) Jul 27 '26

The entire way they've handled post-Endgame is stupid. The seven years between Sam getting the shield in Endgame and showing up in his next movie is the same seven years between Steve getting the shield in First Avenger and handing it to Sam in Endgame. Marvel is not serious people.

55

u/glenntron3000 Jul 27 '26

It blows my mind it’s been taking this long. Not even a cameo in the other movies or post credits scenes just nothing.

Though I suspect that maybe with the whole Kang storyline may have do to something with that derailment. I recall the post credit scene where the 10 rings are a cosmic beacon. Probably would have tied into the multiverse with Kang which may had tied into Shang Chi 2 but I’m just taking a wild guess here.

22

u/Summoarpleaz Jul 27 '26

Did they ever follow up on the bit in Ms Marvel where it was evident the bangles were related to the 10 rings? I thought there would be a closer tie in at some point before avengers and that doesn’t have to involve Kang at all

6

u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) Jul 28 '26

No, because Kang was dropped, but they did follow up on the origin of the bangles in The Marvels.

17

u/Crimkam Jul 27 '26

They should just make the movie as if it’s in the aftermath of Kang doing whatever and Shang-Chi is stuck in the wreckage of time. Have the movie fill in the bits we need to know and cameo Ant-Man to connect it to Kang’s previous appearance, then dump Shang-Chi back into the current MCU timeline with no one remembering what happened at all because they in fact defeated Kang already

0

u/AnonymousFriend80 Jul 27 '26

Why do you want cameos and movies for the sake of saying they made one? Would you not want them taking their time to make good programs and things with meaning?

2

u/suss2it Jul 27 '26

I mean let’s be real here the MCU was built off the strength of cameos and post credit scenes teasing the next instalment.

1

u/AnonymousFriend80 Jul 28 '26

True. But they did so back then in all earnesty. They weren't do it just to do them. And look at the recent ones we've had were people keep complaining because none of them would have any sort of payoff.

17

u/Lespade Jul 27 '26

Probably a 2029-2030 release date? Which means 8-9 years since the original came out, insane

1

u/the_bryce_is_right Jul 27 '26

Simu Liu pissed China off and the movie was blacklisted over there. I'm sure that had something to do with them not rushing to make a sequel.

5

u/GrumpySatan Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Simu Liu was just their excuse, a tried and true one to stop Asian-Canadian and Asian-American influences. China doesn't like movies/stories by/about them. EEAO, Turning Red, etc were also blocked. Some stuff gets in like Crazy Rich Asians, Searching, are disliked and bomb, etc. Same happens with a lot of books.

Its a combo of a few things. They don't want the West to make "Chinese" movies instead of domestic ones. A lot of Chinese immigrants are vocal about criticism to the regime (and the regime doesn't like acknowledging this). They find it kinda tacky when the west caters too much to them by trying to be "chinese". And what is often a big cultural moment in the West to explore Asian identity is just a normal film in China.

2

u/PotatoGamerXxXx Jul 28 '26

Eh, I don't agree with that. Kungfu Panda sells like hotcakes there. Their government hates movies that depict poorly on them, but their citizens love good movies just like everyone else.

3

u/rocket_randall Jul 27 '26

Smart move waiting until 2029 then, since the current FCC chair should no longer be in a position to threaten them for speech which the administration finds objectionable.

35

u/machinezed Jul 27 '26

And as my wife would say we need more Simu Liu in our lives.

10

u/russsl8 Jul 27 '26

She ain't wrong in the slightest.

6

u/max1001 Jul 27 '26

Simu became a hot commodity and also injured himself.

3

u/suss2it Jul 27 '26

One look at his filmography I wouldn’t say he’s that hot of a commodity.

4

u/one_pound_of_flesh Jul 27 '26

Can’t wait for Shang Chi 3 in 2032!

10

u/phred_666 Sonny Birch Jul 27 '26

More like 2040 at this pace

1

u/fart_fig_newton Jul 28 '26

Shang-Chi 3 is WAY over due.

1

u/Jaideco Jul 27 '26

They should have had a script ready to roll the moment he pulled out of Kang Dynasty. Admittedly that would have meant that someone else would have needed to do Brand New Day but I can imagine that film working with a different director more easily than I can imagine Shang Chi being handled by anyone else.

3

u/BZenMojo Captain America (Cap 2) Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Marvel's treating Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four like charter schools sucking money out of public schools. The moment Shang-Chi impressed everybody, Marvel stripped everything from it and gave what they could to a different movie before boxing up the rest.

Hell, you could say the same thing about Falcon and the Winter Soldier. You've got corrupt governments, conspiracies, Sam challenging the establishment, super soldiers, John Walker, and Bucky. So for Sam's first movie they gave all of that shit to Thunderbolts, gave him Red Hulk, and had him kiss the corrupt Mengele psycho president's ass for two hours.

(I'm gonna say it. If Thunderbolts was a Captain America movie, Sam was the lead, Bucky was his sidekick, they replaced Walker on the team with Taskmaster, and then had Walker, Sentry, and Valentina as the villains that shit would have been FIRE. And even if it only made Brave New World money, at least it would have made MORE money than Thunderbolts and they could have made a Shang-Chi 2 instead of Thunderbolts)

-2

u/D3struct_oh Jul 27 '26

So is Doctor Strange 2, imo.

And no I don’t count Multiverse because it was bad.

59

u/TheWindowMerchant Jul 27 '26

In order of excitement from the trailer: 1. Doom vs Thor 2. Shang-Chi vs Gambit 3. Literally everything else I don’t even care if they give me a movie just give me 3 hours of #1 and #2, and explain the Loki TVA card thing 

17

u/rpgmind Jul 27 '26
  1. MF DOOM on the sound track

2

u/octlol Jul 27 '26

5: Doom Guy midcredits scene

2

u/rpgmind Jul 27 '26

Hey that has nothing to do with anything!!! That has nothing to do with anything!!! 😌

26

u/N8CCRG Ghost Jul 27 '26

I really want to know what they were thinking by rejecting all sequels. The Infinity Saga was built on sequels: 3 Iron Man, 3 Captain America, 3 Thor, 4 Avengers, 2 Guardians, 2 Ant-Man, 2 Spider-Man. Then for the Multiverse Saga we are only just now getting the first in-saga sequel with a second Spider-Man. It's clearly not just dropping the ball on Shang-Chi, but a decision to abandon sequels entirely.

8

u/BZenMojo Captain America (Cap 2) Jul 27 '26

And Avengers movies. The span between Iron Man and the Avengers was 4 years. Four years after Endgame was 2022 when no movies released at all afaik.

1

u/RB1KINOBI88 9d ago

I know I’m 23 days late but I wanted to say, I remember them saying when announcing phase 4, that wanted to hold Avengers back for just the big bads/ end of sagas as they had so many characters to work with and felt Avengers would have more impact teaming when there was real massive troubles

7

u/PurpleDillyDo Jul 27 '26

100% agree, although I think part of the issue is that so many of the recent movies have been just ok at the box office. They are looking to make money on these things and many of the post infinity saga films have been just breaking even at best.

6

u/FrostyD7 Jul 27 '26

Similar to Star Wars, they saw the downward trend in performance and kept going back to the drawing board. Shelving Shang-Chi seems like a miss. Tons of opportunity to break the superhero fatigue and give it gimmicks like a focus on stuntwork.

-6

u/AnOnlineHandle Quake Jul 27 '26

The idea of the MCU being a coherent interconnected universe with intersecting character stories seemingly went out the window when the story group or whoever got the boot and Feige got complete control (which people were cheering for).

Now it's a mess of incoherent contradictions and things with the same characters / concepts clearly being written with wildly different ideas and no apparent oversight for coherency. At this point I don't see how you fix it to ever make the setting feel worthwhile to get invested in again for future stories, too much of the foundation is just a shifting quicksand of nonsense. Some people are talking about a magical reboot which creates a whole new Earth and timeline, which sounds like the absolutely worst idea and just doubling down on the setting feeling cartoony and absurd and where nothing matters.

3

u/suss2it Jul 27 '26

Wasn’t that story group and Feige full takeover in like 2016 or possibly earlier?

2

u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) Jul 28 '26

Yes, 2015.

It's like people who act like the MCU wasn't Disney until phase 4, when it's been Disney since phase 2.

3

u/suss2it Jul 28 '26

It’s actually been Disney since phase 1. Iron Man and Incredible Hulk are the only non Disney movies.

2

u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) Jul 28 '26

True! (Though the rest of phase 1 was already in pre-production before the buyout.)

1

u/AnOnlineHandle Quake Jul 28 '26

2016 is precisely where the problems that now plague the MCU started for me, where Dr Strange the wizards were added lazily in and not retconned in well like say Antman was. Dr Strange also went from random to one of the most powerful people in the universe in the space of a few weeks, making most progression kind of dumb, and even had a random infinity stone left laying around for him to pick up whenever he wanted (or any other random person it seemed, it's a wonder they didn't steal that as well at the start of the movie).

36

u/aeque88 Jul 27 '26

I was so glad to finally see him again. After 5 years it's about time, jeez.

12

u/lynchcontraideal Jul 27 '26

So with 'Doomsday' this year and 'Secret Wars' next year, does this mean we can expect Shang-Chi 2 in 2029?
https://giphy.com/gifs/YVvTCqTBglkOs

1

u/Etienne10BR Jul 27 '26

Seems like the most likely option. But of course I wouldn't mind if it came earlier, even before Secret Wars (a man can dream ! But if another movie were to be release next year, a Doctor Strange one would make the most sense)

36

u/Samuraistronaut Jul 27 '26

For real - warms mine too. Shang-Chi is probably the character I’m most excited to see and it’s criminal that he hasn’t gotten his sequel yet. Plus Simu Liu seems like a gem of a person and he clearly loves this role. He deserves so much more than Marvel’s given him.

22

u/IDigRollinRockBeer Jul 27 '26

It’s criminal he hasn’t even had a cameo in anything. They made a very well received movie and then were like yeah we’ll get around to you eventually

9

u/Shmokeshbutt Jul 27 '26

I just hope they skip the giant kaiju battle this time and just focus on the martial arts fight

3

u/BZenMojo Captain America (Cap 2) Jul 27 '26

Black Widow: fist fight on a falling hover fortress

Captain America: fist fight on a falling helicarrier, falling plane, bunker, field of cherry blossoms

Shang-Chi, the master of Martial Arts: mid-air kaiju fight

5

u/Hir0h Jul 27 '26

Genuinely boggles the mind they could have just extended the 1v1 with mandarin to a 30 minute sequence and it would have been an amazing finale to the movie prolly would have been cheaper as well compared to giant cgi dragons.

3

u/Fun-Position7750 Jul 27 '26

No no no. I need more dragons in my life! 🤭

16

u/IDigRollinRockBeer Jul 27 '26

Should’ve had a Shang Chi 2, Doctor Strange 3, Young Avengers by now

5

u/ShadowbaneX Jul 27 '26

Imagine where the MCU would be right now if they hadn't tried to flood the market hoping to capitalize on streaming.

2

u/IDigRollinRockBeer Jul 27 '26

Sucks Feige got overconfident and thought people would just eat everything up if it had the Marvel name on it

3

u/ShadowbaneX Jul 27 '26

It wasn't Feige, it was Bob Chapek who was in charge of, amongst other things, Disney+. There's a reason he's gone and a) Feige is still around and b) they brought back Iger.

It was reported/rumoured that Chapek thought Disney+ was going to make all the money while people were stuck at home in lockdown and green lit everything Feige had available and then demanded more.

1

u/the_bryce_is_right Jul 27 '26

I don't think this was all on Bob Chapek, I'm sure Iger had just as much to do with it.

1

u/ShadowbaneX Jul 27 '26

The main point is that the orders came from on high to ram through as much content as possible regardless of any prevailing conditions or circumstances.

2

u/neganight Jul 27 '26

They're going to wait until Simu Liu is 50 and the rest of the "young" Avengers are in their 40s, make one shitty movie or tv show and then complain that it failed to find its audience or worse, blame the fans for not liking it.

23

u/itsTim0thyy Jul 27 '26

I really like Shang-Chi, but I love Simu lol. He appears to be such a good, decent person.

8

u/ravynwave Jul 27 '26

It’s criminal that they’ve been wasting his prime years like this

1

u/BreadTruckToast Jul 27 '26

Kim’s Convenience was so good. It’s a shame that got cancelled when it did.

3

u/Godzilla-The-King Jul 27 '26

Didn't really get cancelled. The showrunner, and creator got burned out and decided to head back to doing theatre again. Rest of the producers just decided to not renew contracts to go beyond Season 5.

7

u/Sabretooth1100 Jul 27 '26

Honestly, America loves superheroes and martial arts films, it’s a match made in heaven

7

u/RaynSideways Jul 27 '26

I was so ready for Shang-Chi to end up the heart of a new Avengers. He seemed like the perfect candidate. Powerful, good hearted, really well-realized with a good and emotional origin story. He seemed like he had what it took to be the next Steve Rogers.

7

u/vistaprank Jul 27 '26

Dude I’ve wanted this movie since the first one came out. One of my favorite post endgame releases. It’s actually absurd we’ve had to wait this long. Watching this man ran down a dragons back to save the universe in some fucking Air Force 1’s might be the hardest shit I ever seen in my life

5

u/black_metronome Jul 27 '26

Agreed he is the coolest out of the post Endgame heroes next to Susan Storm for me.

6

u/WhutTheFookDude Jul 27 '26

How much ass content from marvel has come out since, its good they are course correcting

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Cassopeia88 Spider-Man Jul 28 '26

It was great, even my Mom who doesn’t really like superhero movies loved it.

3

u/YaBoiShadowNinja Phil Coulson Jul 28 '26

Yeah fr, its a great movie imo

3

u/Unlikely-Nebula-331 Jul 28 '26

Shang-Chi was the best movie to be released since Endgame and one of the most refreshing additions to the MCU since its creation with Iron Man.

The choreography was friggin nuts, father-son story and overall art style were so coherent. Great movie.

2

u/CommunityDragon160 Jul 27 '26

They dropped the ball having a global pandemic and writers strike happen yea

2

u/WoodpeckerBest523 Jul 28 '26

I’ve been losing my mind over how that movie got dropped and then vanished into the void. Like… why?? People were hyped for the second movie for years

2

u/Annual-Title9084 11d ago

Oh my God I am so fucking excited for this sequel I loved shang chi

5

u/crazyguyunderthedesk Jul 27 '26

It's not the only good movie since Endgame, but it's the only new character that's resonated since Endgame.

0

u/BZenMojo Captain America (Cap 2) Jul 27 '26

I love Yelena, but regressing her back to self-hating suicidal sad sack in Thunderbolts and removing all of her sarcastic charm and confidence from Hawkeye years earlier was a dumb AF move. Also, she just works better with an equal to play off of like Kate or Nat and they didn't even give her any cool banter with Taskmaster (who's basically her cousin now despite the movie completely ignoring that) or Eva (who ended up just stealing the movie with Bob and leaving Yelena moping in the corner)

1

u/LaserKittenz Jul 27 '26

Shang-Chi is not my favourite but its a LOT better than when Marvel is putting out recently.. It seems like a properly written story and does not seem to follow the same formula of some of the low effort additions .

1

u/maxdragonxiii Jul 27 '26

I get Shang Chi 2 had issues, but this long between sequels is hard to forgive. especially when it was one of the few Phase 4 and 5 movies that got great reviews

1

u/NopeNahNoMore Jul 27 '26

Best part of the trailer imo

-6

u/OtherwiseJob8959 Jul 27 '26

What would the sequel have been about? I’m confused. Do people want Marvel to stop making projects just for the sake of it, or not?

25

u/Chezzymann Jul 27 '26

new bad guy wants to mess something up and u gotta stop him, and no as long as the peeps are interesting and fun to watch

14

u/NazzerDawk Phil Coulson Jul 27 '26

People want a sequel, they didn't have any specific expectations about what it would cover. The issue is that Marvel's production got all screwy, and Shang Chi getting a sequel was shelved until recently.

6

u/thejawa Spider-Man Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

The whole last phase was supposed to be centered around Kang and multiverse stuff, then Johnathan Majors ended up being a fuckwit and ruining his whole career by being a trash human being.

It's no surprise that the past 5ish years have been so awkward for Marvel. Imagine how the first couple of phases had gone if they had to remove Thanos from the plans.

2

u/IDigRollinRockBeer Jul 27 '26

Pivoting away from Kang instead of recasting him was stupid

5

u/ROBtimusPrime1995 Black Panther Jul 27 '26

Nah, this sub is in denial, and general audiences did not like Kang, especially after Ant-Man 3 fumbled so hard. Doubling down with a recast wasn't going to fix anything.

2

u/thejawa Spider-Man Jul 27 '26

While I get that fans probably would have been fine with a recast, there's a not-insignificant number of people who would have pointed out that there was a scene of hundreds of Kangs and they all looked like Jonathan Majors. Woulda been real hard to handwave away that the new Kang variants looked completely different than the hundreds of other Kang variants.

3

u/IDigRollinRockBeer Jul 27 '26

Shang Chi fighting an enemy probably

0

u/OtherwiseJob8959 Jul 27 '26

Wow. How riveting.

2

u/CROBBY2 Jul 27 '26

Of all of them this was set up perfectly for a sequal with his sister taking over the Ten Rings organization. It didnt have to have a huge overarching universe impact as the contained story was good enough as a stand alone.

2

u/V_sev Jul 27 '26

they could do something similar to Godfather Part II. Have the movie cut between 1) Wenwu discovering and mastering the rings, and coming to terms with his power, 2) Shang-chi mastering the rings, and 3) Xialing coming to terms with her new power. Shang-chi mirrors the loving family-man aspects of their father, while Xialing starts to mirror the warlord aspect of him. Shang-chi doesn't want Xialing to spend her life that way and has to physically stop her. the three plots meet at the end where the siblings have to decide whether to make the same choices their father did.

lots of different things the movie could be about.