When Is ShangChi Set In The MCU Timeline

When Is Shang-Chi Set In The MCU Timeline?

When is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings set in the MCU timeline? Here’s when the movie takes place and how it all works together.

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When Is ShangChi Set In The MCU Timeline

Warning: SPOILERS for Shang-Chi.

When is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline? For the majority of the MCU’s run, it became an unspoken rule that each movie was set in the year they came out in theaters. This included obvious outliers like Captain America: The First Avenger, but it was in Phase 3 that the timeline became extra complicated. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was set in 2014, Captain Marvel took place in 1995, and then Avengers: Endgame jumped five years into the future to 2023 – only to see Spider-Man: Far From Home progress the timeline to 2024.

This has put the MCU slightly in the future of the real world, but delays to Phase 4 and properties set almost immediately after Avengers: Endgame has allowed the gap to slowly close. WandaVision takes place only a few weeks after Thanos’ snap was reversed, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is set six months after Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes said goodbye to Steve Rogers. The MCU timeline has continued to shuffle the events in the MCU timeline, with Black Widow set directly after the events of Captain America: Civil War and the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, Eternals spanning 7,000 years and putting together the Eternals’ origins with the aftermath of Thanos’ Snap, and Loki set in a place outside of space and time altogether. So where does that leave Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and its two post-credits scenes?

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings begins hundreds of years ago with a small origin story for Wenwu, but the bulk of the movie takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame; a specific year isn’t given, but it’s safe to assume it’s either in late 2023, similar to Spider-Man: Far From Home. However, there might be some confusion on the specific place of the movie within Phase 4’s timeline due to its varying chronology. Shang-Chi showed how Wenwu met Li in 1996 and how they married shortly thereafter, with Li giving birth to Shang-Chi in late 1996 at the absolute earliest. Based on that timeline, Shang-Chi left his father and the Ten Rings in 2010, met Katy the same year, and the rest of the events of the film take place in 2020, which is 10 years later. However, that doesn’t gel with the >post-Endgame timeline, meaning Shang-Chi must’ve been born around 2000 for it all to work. This would also work with the “Gangnam Style” reference, since Shang-Chi says he was mistaken for Korean because of that music video, which was released in 2012.

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Setting Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings sometime in 2023 or 2024 would make the most sense with how Phase 4 is largely playing out. It allows Marvel Studios to introduce a new MCU hero at a fresh entry point to the larger narrative with minimal hoops to jump through. Marvel can avoid needing to address why Shang-Chi didn’t lend a hand in fighting Thanos at the end of Avengers: Endgame or make him yet another snap victim to explain where he was during a turbulent moment in the MCU. Plus, it puts him in a position to be the hero of his story without the Avengers or a devastating global event overshadowing him.

Other references to the MCU’s timeline that help viewers pinpoint the movie’s setting are Wenwu’s nod to Aldrich Killian’s attempt to use the identity of “The Mandarin” and the return of Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings clarified Wenwu’s stance on the “Mandarin” moniker when he recounted how a terrorist used the name “some years ago”. With Trevor finding himself at home with Morris in Wenwu’s cellar and sporting a long mane, the place Shang-Chi takes in the MCU’s timeline is more than likely late 2023 or early 2024.

Considering that Shang-Chi’s friendship with Katy had the opportunity to blossom for ten years (meaning Shang-Chi and Katy weren’t dusted for five years), it’s safe to say the bulk of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings happens close to the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. As for the two post-credits scenes, both clearly take place directly after the movie, as the Ten Rings organization was immediately up for grabs after Wenwu’s death and the artifacts themselves needed to go somewhere. So, Xialing started leading the Ten Rings without hesitation and Shang-Chi immediately sought the help of Wong, Bruce Banner, and Carol Danvers to understand how the Ten Rings worked.

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Even though Marvel Studios primarily explores Shang-Chi’s story after Avengers: Endgame, his solo movie still expands the MCU’s past. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings shows brief moments in history where Wenwu ruled with the aid of the Ten Rings and also featured Shang-Chi at various points in his life with the use of flashbacks. In Wenwu’s eyes, ten years isn’t a blip, so he wasn’t worried about not seeing his son. Flashbacks to Shang-Chi’s younger days and the origins of the Ten Rings’ enrich the MCU’s history as well and let Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings travel to different points in the timeline without being bogged down by the wider franchise.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/shang-chi-movie-mcu-timeline-takes-place-when/

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