‘Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings’: How Wong Sets up a Bigger Universe for the Heroes in End Credits
They could rest up for what's next, or...
In the words of Nick Fury, Shang-Chi and Katy are now part of a bigger universe.
Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings ends with Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and his best friend Katy (Awkwafina) returning back to San Francisco, having successfully saved the world. Out at dinner with friends, they recount their wild adventure much to the confusion of their companions, who don’t believe a single word they’re saying. All that changes when Wong (Benedict Wong) appears through a portal with a sling ring, ordering the duo to go with him to parts unknown. Where to next?
“Every time I watch that scene, I still get chills,” Liu tells Marvel.com. “It is, I think, the perfect post credit sequence. It sets up what is to come and is just the perfect welcome to the circus that is the MCU.”
Calling the scene “totally incredibly surreal,” Liu compares Wong recruiting Shang-Chi to his own journey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “It was like someone talking straight to me telling me that my life was going to change forever. There is that moment where Wong is staring me right in the face saying, `From now on, the trajectory of your lives will be like nothing you've ever imagined.’”
Shang-Chi doesn’t go alone, as Katy goes with him through the portal, only to find themselves not only in the company of Wong but also the holograms of Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), surprise cameos reprised by MCU stars Mark Ruffalo and Brie Larson. Turns out, the Ten Rings that Shang-Chi is now in possession of have some sort of beacon inside of them, and they are much older than anyone ever anticipated.
Just like the rest of us, Awkwafina is excited to find out what happens next. “I have a similar outlook as Katy, and that I have no idea what's going to happen. But it's something. Something is afoot.”
The idea to end the movie with this end credit tag was something that came up early in production for the movie, with producer Jonathan Schwartz calling Wong the “gateway” for whatever happens next.
“We wanted to give the audience an indication that Shang-Chi is part of this bigger thing now,” Schwartz explains. “That was the goal, and then it came down to who are the right characters to put Shang-Chi in touch with to say, ‘Yes he's one of them, he's part of this thing.’ It was a conversation between me, and [director] Destin Daniel Cretton, and [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige of who's right? Who would be doing the scene? Who feels right from a character standpoint, and for what the ongoing stories are in the MCU? That's how we ended up with Wong, and Bruce, and Carol taking us through what they know about the rings and welcoming Shang-Chi into the bigger universe.”
It was easy for the creative team to settle on Wong, considering he appears mid-way through the movie in Xialing’s Golden Dagger Club, with a connection already established to Shang-Chi and Katy.
“Benedict [Wong] is such a force of a performer,” Cretton says. “When he enters the scene, you just feel the energy shift. And to be able to have him usher our two heroes into the broader world of the MCU just felt like the perfect ending to our movie.”
However, don’t expect to see the full cut of them singing “Hotel California.” While there is a longer version of the final karaoke scene, as Cretton laughs, “It's nice to just see a little snippet of what they're up to and then imagine the rest of it.”
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