Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi To Be The Most Powerful The Avenger?
Could Shang-Chi the MCU's most powerful Avenger?
This article is more than 2 years old
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is out now, making it a smash hit for its Labor Day opening weekend. Like any new hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, people have questions about how powerful that character is compared to their fellow Avengers. Director Destin Daniel Cretton talked to Collider (seen below) about the power of the character, played by Simu Liu.
Collider’s founder and Editor-in-Chief, Steven Weintraub, started off by asking for a comparison between Shang-Chi and iconic figures like Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). To the filmmaker, he feels by the end of the blockbuster that Simu Liu is as powerful as other fan favorites in the ever-growing universe of superpowered heroes.
He elaborated on the power level of Simu Liu’s new hero. To no surprise, the team had conversations debating his powers compared to other world-saving heroes. Those debates did not end in a definitive answer, but it will be further explored in other movies, like the sequel. The soonest we could get an answer is whenever the next big ensemble adventure happens with the inevitable Avengers 5 or some other epic crossover event.
The same question about Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi was put to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. The master of dodging questions, Feige gave a cryptic response referring to the variations that can happen, like if Tony Stark is in or not in his suit. He joked that the “most disappointing answer” would be that the fight between the martial arts master against anyone else would end in a tie.
Everyone needs time to grow, especially Simu Liu’s new character Shang-Chi. To become a top-tier superhero, he has some serious competition. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Thor, Hulk, and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) are some of the toughest heroes that have been introduced so far. In November, we will be getting the god-like Eternals who are destined to change the entire universe as we know it.
The introduction of Shang-Chi is a huge deal for Marvel and for representation as a whole. Most Hollywood films, especially superhero action flicks, don’t often lead with people of color. This is the first Asian-led installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Fala Chen, and Michelle Yeoh.
Despite the pandemic still raging, Simu Liu and his co-stars are off to a great start with the opening weekend of Shang-Chi. It’s a huge hit as it is the highest-grossing opening Labor Day weekend since Rob Zombie’s Halloween in 2007. The latest Marvel spectacle collected $90 million in its first four days, with $75 million of that being within the first three days. It is the second biggest opening weekend since the pandemic, with Black Widow taking the lead with its $80 million opening. This means it beat out F9: The Fast Saga‘s $70 million and A Quiet Place Part II‘s $48 million.
You can catch Simu Liu turn the page from the sitcom Kim’s Convenience to whooping ass in Shang-Chi and Legend of the Ten Rings exclusively in theaters. It will go to Disney Plus 45 days after its premiere, making it the first to follow this format for Disney, which has previously released movies both in theaters and its streaming service on day one.
