WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, now in theaters.
While Black Widow had only a post-credits scene, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings boasts both mid- and post-credits sequences, like many of its Marvel Cinematic Universe counterparts. Fortunately, neither of the additional scenes come off simply as a gag; each informs the course of the MCU moving forward, especially in how Shang-Chi and his supporting cast fit into the expanding cinematic universe. Here’s what happens in the Shang-Chi‘s mid-credits scene, and how it may set the course for the martial arts superhero’s future.
Shang-Chi ends how it began, with Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and his best friend Katy (Awkwafina) catching up over drinks with some old friends in San Francisco. In a direct contrast to how Shang-Chi and Katy seemed content on spinning their wheels in mundane jobs, the end of the movie has them recount their epic adventure saving the world in Ta Lo. While their friends are incredulous that this story actually occurred, Wong (Benedict Wong) appears through a magical portal to recruit Shang-Chi and Katy. The mid-credits scene picks up immediately thereafter as they follow him to the Sanctum Sanctorum.
In the stinger, Wong complete his analysis of the powerful Ten Rings that Shang-Chi inherited from his father, Wenwu (Tony Leung). Concluding that the rings are made from no known materials in this universe, Wong deduces they are multiversal in nature, and vows to investigate the matter further. He then welcomes Shang-Chi and Katy into a much larger universe among the MCU’s superhero community. Given that the next time audiences will see Wong is in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with the sorcerer vocally wary of tampering with the multiverse, his suspicions may have been raised by examining the Ten Rings, and by the monsters from the multiverse nearly being unleashed on Earth.
Joining Wong, Shang-Chi and Katy for the analysis through magical or holographic projection are Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). While Carol Danvers urges the others to call her should they need her assistance — reaffirming her connection to Earth and its superheroes — Bruce observes that they don’t actually have her contact information after she leaves. More interestingly, Bruce is longer in his Professor Hulk form, as we last saw him in Avengers: Endgame. That implies the merger between Banner and his gamma-radiated alter ego was only short-lived. However, his arm remains damaged since using the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet during Endgame.
With Shang-Chi now welcomed into the MCU superhero community, audiences may see him paired with familiar faces for epic adventures sooner rather than later. The Ten Rings now have a surprising connection to the multiverse, which could potentially play a role in No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with the return of Wong. And with Bruce set to appear in Marvel’s She-Hulk Disney+ series, perhaps the reasoning his return to his natural state will receive a proper explanation as his cousin Jennifer Walters claims her own superhero destiny in the MCU.
More than just the Master of Kung Fu, Shang-Chi has quietly set up the growing importance of the multiverse in the MCU, which may necessitate him teaming with other heroes to protect their reality in the near future.
Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.
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