Simu Liu Knows Where The 'Shang-Chi' Sequel Should Be

The 'Barbie' actor recently shared what he was told about his next starring turn in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

It’s been a year and a half since development on a sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was announced, just a few months after the film’s release. The film was so popular that at San Diego Comic-Con last year, Shang-Chi was included among the leads of the Marvel Zombies animated series announced there, with Simu Liu reprising the role. However, the Hall H presentation that laid out Phases Five and Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe announced many titles. The Shang-Chi sequel was among a small handful of known projects left off despite at least nine visible unassigned spots in the latter phase.

Disney’s recent shuffle of release dates either accommodate the VFX artists or was chosen because they won’t pay the writers enough resulting in the ongoing strike which benched several shows in production until the strike ends. Most pertinently, the upcoming Avengers films The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, were each delayed by a year, from May 2, 2025 and May 1, 2026 to the latter date and May 7, 2027. The writers’ strike, and a looming one for the Screen Actors Guild, led Marvel Studios to drop out of Hall H this year, meaning whatever flashy follow-up presentation that was planned to presumably fill those holes with newly-announced titles will now happen elsewhere. But people are getting antsy. So on Threads, Meta’s recently-launched answer to Twitter, Liu was asked for a status update, and he replied

“was told it would follow Avengers, but that keeps pushing back due to circumstances beyond my control 🙁 hope to have more concrete news to share soon.”

From context, Liu confirms that the sequel was pegged for release after The Kang Dynasty, which is directed by Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton, who is also working on a Wonder Man series. Whether Shang-Chi is in The Kang Dynasty is unclear, but either way his sequel being after it would certainly gear up involvement in Secret Wars. Hopefully soon really means soon and it gets as lavish an announcement as it would have in Hall H.

In the meantime, Liu can next be seen in Barbie, which opens on July 21. He has two other films in post-production: Arthur the King with Mark Wahlberg, and the Netflix-bound Atlas with Jennifer Lopez.

Source: What’s On Disney+