Exclusive Details on The Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom in Shang-Chi

Things have been a little slow for Marvel news lately, but with productions starting back up after the shutdowns we’re starting to hear some cool things about the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe entries from sources close to the productions; beginning with next May’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

The first bit might have been included in some of those “plot leaks” that appeared on places like 4Chan, but it means at least part of those are true. When the story starts The Mandarin and Shang-Chi are not enemies, and The Mandarin acts as a mentor figure for Shang-Chi. There might have been a plot leak that said that Shang-Chi worked for The Mandarin, and that would fit with him being a mentor to the young Master of Kung Fu when the movie starts.

Even bigger (literally) is the dragon Fin Fang Foom. We’ve known for a while that he’d appear in the movie, but now there are more details as to how he fits into the story and why we haven’t seen the giant dragon in the MCU yet.

Doctor Strange introduced the concept of magic to the MCU and showed us that there were sorcerers all around the world. That movie established that three Sanctums together helped protect the Earth, and it appears that concept of a magical trinity will continue in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings where there is a trio of wizards who are tasked with keeping Fin Fang Foom dormant. Obviously something is going to happen to them to cause the dragon to awaken in the movie.

Now this part is just my speculation, but what if Mordo carries through with his “too many sorcerers” mantra and unknowingly unleashes Fin Fang Foom by taking out those wizards? There have been some plot leaks that say Mordo shows up in the movie as a cameo, so it’d be a really cool connection back to that post-credits stinger in Doctor Strange to show Mordo robbing these wizards of their magic, only to unleash a giant dragon.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has resumed production in Australia and is currently scheduled for release in May of 2021. Hopefully we’ll learn some more details, such as more cast members, as we get closer to that release date.