One of the new heroes joining the MCU over the next couple of years is Shang-Chi, with Simu Liu debuting as the master martial artist in February 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Often a familiar face will turn up in a fresh character’s first movie to sort of welcome them into the Marvel family, but we’ve yet to have it confirmed whether Shang-Chi will follow this trend. If it does, though, there’s a chance Captain Marvel might drop by.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton spoke with MTV News’ Josh Horowitz while at the Toronto Film Festival where his latest movie, Just Mercy, had its premiere. Obviously, the topic of his upcoming MCU effort came up and Cretton was asked whether Just Mercy star Brie Larson could appear as Carol Danvers in Shang-Chi. Surprisingly, the filmmaker didn’t rule the idea out. “I mean, I think there’s always room for Brie,” he answered, chuckling. “But I don’t know, we’ll see.”
.@destindaniel talked to us about bringing #ShangChi to the big screen with @MarvelStudios, and if there’s any chance that #CaptainMarvel will make an appearance: “I think there’s always room for @brielarson” ? #TIFF19 pic.twitter.com/rPVjOLuD9o
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) September 7, 2019
As Horowitz points out, Larson has previously appeared in all but one of Cretton’s feature films. As well as Just Mercy, that includes 2013’s Short Term 12 and 2017’s The Glass Castle. So, it doesn’t seem ridiculous to suggest that she could show up in Shang-Chi when she’s already rolling around the MCU as Marvel’s newest, most powerful heroine.
That said, it may be difficult to get Captain Marvel in there from a storytelling point of view. While Carol operates in the cosmic side of the MCU, Shang-Chi will be part of the Earth-bound, mystical corner of the franchise. But hey, it’s all connected, so you never know. After all, Legend of the Ten Rings will at last introduce the actual Mandarin, as played by Tony Leung, after he was mentioned throughout the Iron Man movies – and we never thought we’d see that.
Also starring Awkwafina in an unknown role, Shang-Chi is due to blast into theaters on February 12th.
