MCU: This ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Actor Might Return for a Ground-Breaking Phase 4 Movie
By all accounts, the Guardians of the Galaxy’s days are numbered. The team — which played a pivotal role in the last two Avengers films — will reunite for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But beyond that, their future remains uncertain. Yet, one actor from the second film might be up for a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Phase 4.
The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movies introduce new characters
The Guardians of the Galaxy movies — perhaps moreso than any other MCU title — truly go all in on creating a world that audiences have never seen before. The 2014 original film focused, of course, on the titular anti-heroes. But the 2017 sequel took things a step further.
In particular, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 dives deeper into the Ravagers as well as characters like Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone). During the film’s extensive mid-credits sequence, fans even meet Stakar’s old team, many of whom made up the original Guardians line-up in Marvel Comics.
Among those characters is Michelle Yeoh’s Aleta Ogord. Gunn has teased that Stakar, Aleta, and their teammates could return in the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie. But no official announcements have confirmed that this is the case. But Yeoh might be returning sooner than expected.
Has Michelle Yeoh joined ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’?
Now rumors persist that Yeoh is set to return to the MCU. But by the sounds of its, she may not be playing Aleta Ogord at all. Instead, Yeoh has been consistently attached — though, again, unconfirmed — to have a role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
That movie is set to hit theaters in May 2021. Played by Simu Liu, Shang-Chi — known as the “Master of Kung Fu” in the comics — will be the first Asian lead in the MCU. And Yeoh’s own experience in martial arts films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would certainly be a great fit for the movie. But would the MCU really cast Yeoh as two different characters?
It wouldn’t be the first time. Yeoh’s Crazy Rich Asians co-star Gemma Chan played Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel and will play Sersi in 2021’s The Eternals. Similarly, Alfre Woodard played Miriam Sharpe in a cameo role in Captain America: Civil War. She went on to play Luke Cage villain Mariah Dillard later that same year.
Whether Yeoh appears, the actor is excited about the MCU movie
Regardless of whether she appears in the Shang-Chi movie, Yeoh certainly has a lot of thoughts about what the movie means for representation. In an interview with Time, she opened up about how impactful the upcoming MCU installment is for the Asian community.
“When that [movie] was announced last year, and they introduced who they were doing as the Marvel superhero and it was an Asian superhero, it was like, ‘Yes, finally!’ When do we get to be represented like that?” Yeoh told Time.
Knowing how secretive Marvel is about its plans, fans probably won’t know for sure if Yeoh is involved in Shang-Chi until the company is ready to reveal that. Yet, if the MCU has as accomplished a star as Yeoh in its corner, it would feel like a missed opportunity not to include her in its first movie with a predominantly Asian cast.
