When Does Shang-Chi Take Place In The MCU Timeline? - CBR

To put it mildly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting complicated. Phase Four expanded aggressively onto new platforms as Disney+ became home to a plethora of new shows with serious canonical impact. Because of this, it's becoming more difficult to keep track of when stories take place in the MCU timeline. With Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings slated for release in September, the question has become particularly pressing as fans determine how its setting might impact the story. And while an answer currently exists, it remains vague on the specifics.

Placement on the timeline, particularly now, establishes several ground rules for the ensuing action by default. That allows fans both to catch up on pertinent lead-up movies and grasp where and how the other parts of the MCU may impact the story. Phase Four has dealt with matters of cosmic importance thus far, and that doesn’t look to change anytime soon. Therefore, it matters that, say, the events of Loki take place before the events of WandaVision even though the latter was released months earlier. Black Widow, too, required a certain specificity of events for its drama to work, with the action set in 2016 just after the events of Captain America: Civil War.

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Shang-Chi is definitely set in “the present” MCU, according to statements to Fandango from director Destin Daniel Cretton. That means 2023: five years after the Snap and more or less immediately after the events of Avengers: Endgame. That was likely the presumption from most MCU fans, but the impact it will likely have isn’t quite so obvious. And with the events of the various Disney+ series throwing the MCU for many loops, the fact that audiences don’t know its placement in terms of their order matters as well.

Although it was the first Phase Four movie, Black Widow didn’t advance the timeline, since it was set in the past. Nothing else could be done, of course, since Natasha Romanoff died during the events of Endgame and any movie featuring her thus needed to be a flashback. That puts a great deal of narrative burden on Shang-Chi, which may need to address things such as the world’s recovery from the Blip and the subsequent problems that ensued as covered in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

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In addition, events such as the creation of the Multiverse and the plot of Eternals are creating seismic shifts in the MCU. Even if Shang-Chi is about something very different – which seems likely, since early footage trends towards a comparatively modest Earth-only setting rather than a larger cosmic plot – its characters may be affected by them regardless. In light of that, whether it takes place before or after the events of, say, WandaVision will likely have a big effect on the MCU as a whole.

Of course, Shang-Chi’s first job is to introduce new fans to its characters, and none of these larger questions needs to interrupt that. But nothing happens in the franchise by accident, and as the MCU’s streaming series have shown, anything Marvel releases now will likely shed a lot of light on upcoming events. Shang-Chi is almost certainly up to the task, and its basic setting in the timeline establishes the parameters of its action. Fans will have to wait for the MCU to narrow the date further to learn more.

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens exclusively in theaters on Sept. 3.

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