The Marvel Cinematic Universe is intricately connected on-screen, but there have been more than a few off-screen coincidences that add even more depth to the franchise. Just the other day, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Florian Munteanu revealed he’d spoken to his Creed II colleague and Black Panther alum Michael B. Jordan about boarding the franchise, and the former’s leading man Simu Liu has a story of his own.
Long before he was brought onto the stage at 2019’s San-Diego Comic-Con, the actor tweeted about the opportunity to play Shang-Chi for Marvel, and it inevitably went viral once the news was confirmed. Now there’s another unexpected correlation between the MCU’s new master of the martial arts and Joss Whedon’s The Avengers.
During a Reddit AMA when he was asked which post-credits scene he wished Shang-Chi had appeared in, Liu plumped for The Avengers, where Earth’s Mightiest Heroes grab some shawarma after saving the world. As it turns out, the character almost made his MCU debut during that exact sequence, after DMG Entertainment Motion Picture Group chief Chris Fenton revealed years back that his company was offered the opportunity to introduce either Shang-Chi or the Mandarin right at the end of the movie.
While that obviously didn’t happen, the star of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings would’ve loved to have appeared in The Avengers stinger, where the very same superhero he was playing almost debuted. A registered interest that came after he tweeted how much he’d love to play the role. Honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up.
