Morris in ‘Shang-Chi’ was almost peak nightmare fuel before becoming the cuddly creature we got

Marvel Studios’ Phase 4 has now wrapped up and looking back, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was one of the highlights. Simu Liu’s MCU debut delivered some of the best action scenes we’ve seen in a superhero movie, the story fleshed out some unseen parts of the universe, and finally, Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery got some redemption after Iron Man 3.

But for many, the star of the show was the bizarre and adorable Morris. This furry, winged creature was inserted into the movie as a bet between screenwriter Dave Callaham and director Destin Daniel Cretton. Callaham believed Morris was too weird to actually make it into the movie, so told Cretton if he was in the theatrical cut, he’d get a tattoo of him. He was, and Callaham is now sporting a charming Morris tattoo.

But it could all have been very different. Newly unveiled Morris concept art has revealed a creature that looks less like a plushie-in-waiting and more like a refugee from Half-Life. Check it out:

We’re just glad they didn’t send Morris to the gym…

If they’d gone with this grotesque look, we think Callaham would have won his bet against Cretton, as this is less like something we want to cuddle and more like something that’s crawled out of our nightmares.

Morris’ MCU future is unknown. We last saw him attending the memorial ceremony at the end of Shang-Chi, though it seems a no-brainer for him to return in future Shang-Chi projects. Perhaps the only truly disappointing factor is that his MCU cuteness rival Baby Groot is now all grown up, so we’ve been robbed of the chance of seeing the pair team up for the more adorable team-up possible.