There are several details that have our minds racing<\/b>
\nThis article contains spoilers for \u201cShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.\u201d It\u2019s a wild time to be an origin movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Coming just after \u201cLoki\u201d upended everything by introducing the multiverse, \u201cShang-Chi\u201d brings its own brand of magic to the MCU in an adventure that apparently stands completely alone from everything else currently going on in the franchise. I say \u201capparently\u201d because everything in the MCU always has some kind of big picture ramifications \u2014 they just aren\u2019t always obvious until later. \u201cShang-Chi\u201d I think is one of those types of situations. I think there are details here that will only make sense sometime between now and \u201cDoctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness\u201d next summer. But it\u2019s always fun to take some shots in the dark anyway, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m gonna do here. So let\u2019s talk about the mid-credits scene. This bonus scene shows Shaun (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) chatting with Wong (Benedict Wong) about those magical arm rings. But it\u2019s not just them. Also present are Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). Banner is in his human form here, rather than the Smart Hulk thing he had going in \u201cAvengers: Endgame,\u201d his arm in a sling. And Captain Marvel is sporting the haircut she had in \u201cCaptain Marvel\u201d rather than the cut she sported during the battle at the end of \u201cEndgame.\u201d The discussion is brief, because none of them can figure anything out about the rings other than that they are extremely old. There\u2019s no obvious comic book connection between the rings and anything currently going in the MCU \u2014 they don\u2019t even have anything to do with Shang-Chi in the comics. Nor does their comic book origins give us any \u2014 they were actually alien devices that the Mandarin found in a crashed space ship. But those aliens \u2014 shapeshifting dragon people called the Makluans \u2014 aren\u2019t any we\u2019ve met before now. Though it does seem very possible that the dragon that was locked away in Ta Lo could be one of these Makluans, that little data point wouldn\u2019t shine any light on what\u2019s ahead. The Makluans being shapeshifters, though, is potentially interesting, as we\u2019ve certainly met another group of shapeshifters from space before: the Skrulls. It would be a very MCU thing to do to tie the creation of the rings to the Skrulls instead. But it\u2019s more likely that the repeated comments about the Ten Rings being extremely old means they\u2019re tied to the Eternals in some way. They\u2019re old, the rings are old \u2014 it makes sense. The Eternals have no ties to the rings in the comics, but that doesn\u2019t mean anything for what the MCU will do. Fortunately, \u201cEternals\u201d is out in November so we won\u2019t have to wait long to find out if that\u2019s a thing. This scene is odd, though, because of two details I already mentioned: Banner being Banner instead of Smart Hulk, Captain Marvel sporting the same hairdo she had at the beginning of \u201cAvengers: Endgame\u201d rather than the cut she wore at the end of the movie. Also conspicuous is what isn\u2019t in the scene \u2014 anyone who was snapped. These details make me wonder if \u201cShang-Chi\u201d takes place somewhere in the five-year gap between snaps, rather than in the MCU\u2019s present. Or maybe it\u2019s a multiverse alt timeline where nobody got unsnapped? There is only one reference to that whole thing, early in the movie when Awkwafina makes a comment about living in a world where half the population could just disappear. She conspicuously didn\u2019t mention anybody returning, which wouldn\u2019t have registered with my brain had the dramatic reshuffling of the MCU schedule not ended up putting \u201cShang-Chi\u201d immediately after the multiverse was introduced in \u201cLoki.\u201d There\u2019s just a lot going on here that doesn\u2019t quite add up, but we don\u2019t have all the answers just yet.<\/p>\n