‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Clip Shows Connection to ‘Black Widow’

While Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an origin story for the character of Shang-Chi, there’s no denying that he lives in the full-fledged Marvel Cinematic Universe where there are established characters at every turn.

It makes sense that Shang-Chi would run into familiar faces on his journey in the movie. And Marvel has just released a short clip of the film that connects Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to its predecessor in the MCU, Black Widow.

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

A freed black widow is seen at an underground fight club in ‘Shang-Chi’

In the above clip, Shang-Chi and Katy arrive at an underground fight club looking for his sister, Xialing. While the host of the club, Jon Jon, shows them around, they see many fights taking place. One of the matches features a recently freed black widow, Helen, and a man who was most likely put through the Extremis process from Iron Man 3.

Helen, played by Jade Xu, can also be seen in Black Widow as one of the widows Natasha releases from Dreykov’s control. Helen’s cameo further proves that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings takes place after Black Widow.

According to CBR.com, Xu is an experienced wushu athlete. She won multiple gold medals at various competitions, including the World Wushu Championships. Xu’s experience in martial arts helped her prepare for her role as Helen, including all of the fight sequences.

Kevin Feige teased Jade Xu’s cameo in a previous tweet

During a Black Widow watch party, Kevin Feige took over Marvel Studios’ Twitter account to talk about the film and reveal behind-the-scenes secrets. But since he is the president of Marvel Studios, he couldn’t help himself when it came to teasing the future of the MCU.

Feige said in the tweet, “One of the Widows, Jade Xu, was born in China, and is a multiple World Wushu Champion. She may even have a brief cameo in a future Marvel movie…”

From Feige’s tweet, fans should have known that Xu would make an appearance in Shang-Chi. Everything is connected in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

There were cameos galore in ‘Shang Chi’

Not only did fans see Helen again in Shang-Chi, but Wong, the Abomination, Carol Danvers, and Bruce Banner also made appearances in the film.

Wong and the Abomination can first be seen in the YouTube clip above. They are fighting in the central ring, where all the big battles take place. Later on, the audience sees Wong again when he leads Shang-Chi and Katy to the Sanctum. The Sanctum trip continues in a post-credits scene where the characters meet with Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner to discuss the peculiarity of the Ten Rings.

All of these cameos were a treat to MCU fans. Plus, the cameos prove Shang-Chi’s importance to the MCU, meaning his character most likely has a place in Marvel’s future.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.