Earlier than his 2021 characteristic movie debut, Shang-Chi was a Marvel superhero that most individuals had by no means heard of. Modeled after Bruce Lee, he is a grasp of weapon-based Kung Fu and the best martial artist inside Marvel, able to holding his personal in opposition to superhuman opponents. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the twenty fifth movie within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), introduced this distinctive superhero to mainstream audiences.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Launch Date
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September 1, 2021
- Runtime
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132 minutes
- Director
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Destin Daniel Cretton
Right here, Shang-Chi is pressured to confront his previous after his father’s terrorist group attracts him right into a seek for a legendary village. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a essential and industrial success. However after watching the movie, some viewers have been left questioning the identical query: did the MCU simply sneak Pokémon into its film?
Was That Ninetales and Moltres in ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’?
Except you have lived underneath a rock for the final 30 years, then you definately’ve in all probability heard of Pokémon. What began out as a kids’s online game on the Nintendo Sport Boy morphed unexpectedly into a world phenomenon. It is now the world’s highest-grossing media franchise, increasing past video video games and into anime, manga, buying and selling playing cards, books, and different merchandise.
The idea is straightforward: people co-exist with creatures often called Pokémon, a big number of species with particular powers. Some Pokémon are immediately recognizable to mainstream audiences, just like the franchise’s flagship character, Pikachu. Others are solely recognizable to followers — and it is these followers who claimed to identify a number of Pokémon in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Within the movie, Shang-Chi travels to Ta Lo, a legendary village that exists in a separate dimension from our personal. This place is crammed with magical creatures that appear to resemble Pokémon. At one level, we see a nine-tailed fox that appears an terrible lot just like the Pokémon, Ninetales. And wait, was that the fiery, legendary fowl Pokémon, Moltres, that we simply noticed fly throughout our screens?
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What You are Actually Seeing Are Chinese language Mythological Creatures
So did Marvel sneak some Pokémon into its film or what? The brief reply: under no circumstances. These aren’t Pokémon you are seeing; they’re really creatures primarily based on Chinese language mythology. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings strove to characterize Asian tradition, and never simply with its forged. Its complete story is dripping with Chinese language mythology. That is not Ninetales you noticed. That majestic, white, nine-tailed fox is the huli jing. Though they’re able to shape-shifting, huli jings are normally depicted as nine-tailed fox spirits. They are often benevolent or malevolent, relying on the story. In truth, Ninetales’ design was impressed by the huli jing.
Oh, and that fowl you noticed? That wasn’t Moltres. That was the fenghuang, also referred to as the Chinese language Phoenix. The fenghuang reigns over all different birds and is considered the female counterpart to the historically masculine and extra iconic Chinese language dragon (although neither are actually given genders anymore). Its physique was initially a composite of a number of completely different animals, however as we speak, its physique is made up of a number of completely different birds. Though it is typically depicted as a fireball, like within the film, its commonest depiction exhibits the fenghuang with black, white, pink, yellow, and inexperienced colours.
Sorry, Pokémon followers, however you may by no means see Pikachu or Mew pop up in a Marvel film. However hopefully, sooner or later, we’ll get a live-action adaptation that portrays Pokémon extra like this: lifelike, magical creatures.
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The Way forward for Shang Chi
So what’s subsequent for Shang-Chi? Regardless of not being a mainstream superhero like Spider-Man or Captain America, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings carried out nicely critically and commercially. The movie was lauded for its exploration and illustration of Asian tradition, setting it a component from different entries within the MCU. It grossed $432 million worldwide in 2021 and obtained an Oscar nomination for Greatest Visible Results. With success like that, you understand Shang-Chi is getting a sequel.
Marvel greenlit the untitled Shang-Chi sequel virtually instantly; the film got here out in September 2021, and by December of that yr, director Destin Daniel Cretton was already engaged on a sequel. However the mission obtained sidelined when Cretton was tapped to direct a fourth MCU Spider-Man movie, a sequel to Spider-Man: No Method Residence, which was deemed a better precedence. Since then, there have not been any updates.
The superhero fatigue that slowed down Marvel’s output, limiting the studio to only one film launch in 2024, in all probability hasn’t helped. Shang-Chi followers will sadly have to attend a bit of longer for a sequel. However hey, in case you’re a Pokémon fan, then a minimum of you have got a surplus of content material there.