Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was officially announced to be on its way at SDCC over the summer. And in case the title didn’t already make it clear, Marvel revealed at the event that Tony Leung would be playing the Mandarin in the movie, with the supervillain – who’s been talked about in the MCU since the beginning but never seen – coming up against Simu Liu’s master martial artist. Some new intel, though, is pointing to several more foes appearing in the film as well.
MCU Cosmic reports that, according to casting information, Marvel is currently looking for actors to play the following villains: Steel Claw, Moving Shadow, Razor-Fist and Ghostmaker. The latter three are all characters found in the pages of Shang-Chi comics, though Ghostmaker is missing his comic counterpart’s hyphen in his name. Steel Claw, however, is not someone from the source material, though it’s possible they’re based on Gold Claw
Four secondary antagonists seems like a heck of a lot, but there’s a rumored plot leak that could explain this. Allegedly, the movie will feature Shang-Chi getting caught up in an underground fight tournament. If this is the case, then it doesn’t take much to deduce that these four will be his competitors. Does Shang-Chi enter the tournament because it’ll lead him to the Mandarin, though? If so, how does this fit with that other rumor that the leader of the Ten Rings is actually his dad?
We’ll have to wait and see, but Marvel apparently have big plans for the superhero in the MCU, with WGTC hearing he’ll be positioned as the franchise’s answer to James Bond. This presumably means we can look forward to the Agents of Atlas being introduced, the all-Asian super-spy team. So, expect major things to come for the character, and it all starts with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, hitting cinemas on February 12th, 2021.
