‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Has Finished Filming
By George Robbins
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, more commonly referred to as the MCU, is home to various characters from the Marvel Comics that many people grew up with. If not for those comics, many people would not have an outlet for the things they love and it is without a doubt responsible for generations of people now loving the superhero genre. Superheroes have existed outside of comic books, but their success as a whole genre can be boiled down to the success of the comics. Most specifically, superheroes draw their success in media from the DC and Marvel comics and they have continued to do so even today with comics being renewed on a regular basis. Unlike those comics though, the MCU has a set storyline and it isn’t being retconned as time goes on.
Very much unlike the comics they are based upon, the MCU films are in it for the long haul because the already established universe can’t necessarily just hit a reset button. In the context of the story, it is very much possible for them to do so with help from McGuffins such as the infinity stones, or something like them. Something, in universe, that could completely reshape the universe that we have seen thus far on screen is what it would take to “retcon” the MCU as a whole. Comic books, being an entirely different medium, can just suddenly decide to hit the reset button whenever they feel that the storylines are getting stale. With this in mind, we can kind of rejoice in the fact that what we get to see on screen will always have its own place and that they won’t just decide to begin anew.
Before the MCU was officially established, superhero movies did nothing but hit the reset button because of the various people making the films. For the longest time, numerous titles were given to different studios who went off and made their own versions of different characters from the Marvel Comics. What followed was a generation of movies featuring various characters from the comics and the films were not regarded very well for the most part. Some of the films ended up being popular with fans, but the vast majority of them left a lot to be desired from the populace. As such, when ‘Iron Man‘ first released in 2008, a new generation of superhero movies began and most of the MCU films that followed were popular among fans.
With the start of the MCU, we saw a vast resurgence in older, but popular characters making their return to the big screen in some way which built up the first phase of the MCU. Without the first phase of the MCU, the future films that we would end up getting for the shared universe would not have been successful. After they proved that there could, in fact, be a shared superhero universe and that it could be well-received by the general public, they started bringing in more characters from the comics that many casual fans didn’t know about. The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Ant-Man,’ and ‘Doctor Strange’ are among that group and, despite not being known by many casual fans, they have been accepted by fans into the MCU because of how well done the characters are. This wouldn’t have even been possible if it weren’t for the first phase paving the way and giving an opportunity for the characters to shine.
Now that the Infinity Saga has ended there are characters which are no longer a part of the MCU- but now that we have seen how other characters that aren’t as well known can be adapted, many new characters have the opportunity to be a part of the MCU. When Marvel Studios announced their plans for their upcoming films moving forward, they announced the huge variety of characters that they have coming to the MCU, but those are not the only characters we will see. Eventually, many fan favorites will end up becoming a part of the MCU as well because slowly, but surely, Disney is managing to unify all Marvel properties under one umbrella. This is how we are now ending up with so many possible cross-over films being set to release over the course of the next few years with many characters now belonging in the same universe.
One of the most interesting parts of the MCU at this time is the fact that we already have an established shared universe where the most powerful heroes have managed to gather up on a number of occasions already. This means that they will now have to work it into the movies how exactly those character fit into everything; including where they have been, what they have been doing, why they didn’t get involved in things before, etc. I believe that, if these things can be explained well, then they can further add to the expanded universe and make it even better than it already was. I think that they need to figure stuff like this out if they ever want to properly integrate characters like the mutants into the MCU in the future, which is most definitely something that they will be trying to do in the not too distant future.
The most common way of dealing with this kind of scenario is actually the most common type of superhero movie there is which is the origin story. While Marvel Studios has already proven that they can weave origins into already existing and unfolding plots, they are just as good as making movies centered around how that hero became what they are now. Considering the fact that much of the upcoming MCU will feature new heroes, we will be seeing a few new origin stories unfold over the coming years. This isn’t really all that much of a surprise, but it is nice to know that we will be getting the opportunity to see how the stories of various characters unfold and how they became the new generation of heroes. Unfortunately, the entire schedule of the MCU has been consistently pushed back due to the pandemic, so it will still be awhile before we get to see the next saga in the MCU start to unfold before our eyes.
A couple of unfortunate events unfolded for the MCU when the pandemic first started which included ‘Black Widow’s’ theatrical release being pushed back and filming for the movie ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ being halted. After a few months, when things started looking like they were going back on track, the announcement was made that ‘Shang-Chi’ was going to be going back into production. This was a stroke of good luck because when they halted production, the movie had only really just begun and no real filming was done for the movie. While things were going well for the production end of the spectrum, the actual release end of things was far from okay because there was a massive surge in virus cases over the Summer which further delayed ‘Black Widow.’ Even after that passed, it was very quickly discovered that movie theaters are in a bad place right now and they can’t really bring customers in because people are afraid of going there and getting the virus.
Now that theaters are on a heavy decline as time rolls on, studios made the decision to further push back the releases of their films. This has inevitably ended up affecting the release of the next few MCU films as their plans were further pushed back more than they ever would have planned for originally. This gives them a lot more time to work on their upcoming films, but it also means that we will not be seeing the new MCU films for quite some time. Fortunately, even if we have to wait a lot longer to see new MCU films, we will know that there was a ton of time spent in post working to make sure the film turned out alright in the end for audiences. They will have a long time to work on ‘Shang-Chi’ as it has apparently finished filming now and, while the theatrical release may be a long time off, the movie will definitely be an interesting origin story that was worked on very hard.