The upcoming Marvel Studios film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is breaking new ground in the MCU. With a powerful and underrated Asian superhero at the forefront and a story that has been missing from the universe for a long time, the film promises to add a new storyline and slew of characters to the universe, but the Mandarian has ties to the MCU's beginnings.

The Mandarin, who serves as the main villain of Shang-Chi along with the Ten Rings, has been mentioned before in the 2013 film Iron Man 3. The small appearance was not enough to satisfy fans in this universe and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige agrees The Mandarin needed further exploration.

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Feige says, is allowing Marvel to explore this villain in a greater way than they could ever before while also introducing a new and forgotten hero to the screen. Feige reminds us that the Ten Rings organization has been attached to the MCU for a long time, as it was the organization that kidnapped Tony Stark at the very beginning of the first Iron Man film. The Marvel boss mentioned that more always wanted to be done with The Mandarin and the Ten Rings, but it was difficult to pull off in the Iron Man series simply because the series needed to focus on Tony Stark's character.

Feige is excited to introduce Shang-Chi in the new movie and further dive into the history of The Mandarin and the Ten Rings. The controversial inclusion of The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 was meant to be a "fun twist" featuring actor Ben Kingsley (Schindler's List) as MCU character Trevor Slattery dressed up in the role. The decision to make Kingsley's Mandarin an imposter received some backlash from fans who saw that the character was not truly authentic or presented in the way he could have been. The original display of Trevor Slattery in The Mandarin costume was in a teaser for the movie, and the character's final role in the film was not all fans hoped it would be.

With the Shang-Chi, Feige hopes that he will be able to bring these characters to justice with the incredible team and cast behind the new movie. He hopes fans will be impressed with the performance of Simu Lui as Shang-Chi and Tony Leung as the Mandarin (and Shang-Chi's father). Other notable cast includes Awkwafina as Shang-Chi's friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan and Fala Chen, Meng'er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng.

The movie will follow Shang-Chi as he struggles to accept his role as a superhero and his family role in the Ten Rings. The Shang-Chi trailer already indicates the long-awaited film will be full of action and wonderful new characters who could become MCU favorites.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be in theaters on September 3rd, 2021.

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Source: Rotten Tomatoes