Five years after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opened to a record-breaking Labor Day weekend, its sequel is still stuck in development. The original pulled in $432.2 million worldwide and set a domestic opening weekend record of $94.6 million over Labor Day 2021. A follow-up felt like a certainty. Then the industry shifted, the world shifted, and Destin Daniel Cretton went quiet.
Now he's talking.
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What Cretton actually said
Appearing on a podcast alongside Wonder Man co-creator Andrew Guest, Cretton confirmed that Marvel Studios is actively developing the sequel. That's the good news. The explanation for why it has taken this long lands somewhere between frustrating and understandable.
He pointed directly at the circumstances surrounding the first film's 2021 release. "We are developing a second one," Cretton said. "It was successful, but it actually came out weirdly." That's a diplomatic way of describing what happened: the original Shang-Chi hit theaters while a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections was still restricting international markets. Many countries had theaters either fully closed or operating under tight capacity limits.
The key here is understanding what those international closures actually meant for sequel momentum. A Marvel film that can't open properly in major overseas markets loses a significant chunk of the box office data studios use to greenlight follow-ups with urgency. The $432.2 million total was strong, but it was almost certainly well below what the film could have earned under normal conditions.
"After that, there were just crazy changes all over the place," Cretton added, describing the broader industry turbulence that followed the pandemic era. He framed the delay as "a result of the industry" recalibrating, not a creative problem or a lack of interest from Marvel.
The Simu Liu gap and what comes next
Simu Liu hasn't appeared in a major MCU project since the 2021 original, which is a long absence for a character who arrived with that much momentum. That changes soon. Liu is set to reprise Shang-Chi in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday from the Russo Brothers, which should re-establish the character in the broader MCU before any standalone sequel arrives.
For Marvel fans who have been keeping tabs on the character through games, Liu's return in Doomsday is the clearest signal yet that the studio hasn't lost interest. If you've been playing Marvel Rivals and want to brush up on your MCU lore ahead of Doomsday, check out the Marvel Rivals Season 7 release date and exact start times for the latest content updates.
Cretton himself isn't sitting still. He's directing Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which Sony and Marvel Studios open on July 31. That project has clearly taken priority, which explains why Shang-Chi 2 has remained in the background rather than moving through active pre-production.
Why the pandemic excuse holds up
It's easy to be skeptical when a filmmaker blames external circumstances for a project stalling. Here's the thing, though: the pandemic genuinely did distort how the industry measured success in 2021. Films that opened during that window were evaluated against a warped baseline, and studios were slower to greenlight sequels when the global box office picture was still unclear.
Shang-Chi's situation was particularly awkward. It performed well enough domestically to justify a sequel on paper, but the international shortfall created hesitation. The MCU's post-Endgame phase was also undergoing its own internal recalibration, with leadership changes and a crowded release slate creating further delays across multiple projects.
Cretton's comments don't suggest the sequel is imminent. They do suggest it's real, it's being worked on, and the delay was structural rather than creative. For fans who want to stay sharp on their Marvel knowledge while waiting, the Marvel Rivals guide on unlocking the Emergence of Greatness achievement is worth a look in the meantime.
Avengers: Doomsday will be the real test. If Liu's return lands well with audiences, expect Shang-Chi 2 to move from development to production faster than anyone currently anticipates. For more gaming guides and entertainment news coverage, our guides hub has you covered across all the major releases.
