MCU fans left flummoxed as ‘Ms. Marvel’ drops shock ‘Shang-Chi’ connection

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the opening scene of Ms. Marvel episode three.

Thanks to Kamala Khan’s status as the biggest MCU fan who lives in the MCU, Ms. Marvel hasn’t been shy about stuffing itself full of easter eggs and references to the wider franchise so far. But as the show digs deeper into the heroine’s origins story, the nods to the universe are becoming less frivolous and more significant. Take this week’s third episode, for instance, that opens with an eye-opening flashback sequence.

Spoilers to follow!

Episode three begins by revealing what happened to Kamala’s great-grandmother, Aisha, who it turns out is one of the Clandestines, a cadre of djinn who were exiled from their own dimension. During the events of Partition in the 1940s, Sana and the Clandestines uncovered their lost bangle, a mystical item that they need to return home, in an abandoned temple.

While the disembodied blue hand the bangle attached to might’ve grabbed our attention first, fans have also paid attention to the curious and familiar symbol engraved on the floor of the temple. Is that… the Ten Rings?

It sure looks like it!

*Points at the screen like Leo.

However, others aren’t so much wowed by the surprise Shang-Chi connection as left uneasy by it.

Couldn’t the bangles just connect to Kamala’s cultural history, not the history of the MCU?

The idea of the Ten Rings being beacons to the djinn’s dimension is really cool. The idea of the MCU’s two Asian heroes being forcibly connected… not so cool.

This opening sees the Clandestines make a point of saying that the other bangle is still missing. So could the Ten Rings actually be the second bangle, only cut up into smaller pieces?

Religion might be the link here…

Was this temple the site of a battle between the Ten Rings organization and the Kree?

Or maybe the Kree created the Ten Rings and the bangles?

Episode three definitely answered some questions about where Kamala’s powers come from, then, but they also posed a whole lot more. We’ll have to patiently wait for more answers as Ms. Marvel continues Wednesdays on Disney Plus.