Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opened five years ago today.
Simu Liu marked the date with a post on X at 2:25 in the morning: “i can’t believe it’s been five years.”
That’s the whole post.
No photo, no announcement attached, just the date.
The Labor Day record still stands
Shang-Chi opened September 3, 2021, and set the Labor Day weekend record with a $75.3 million debut.
Nothing has touched that number on the holiday since.
The movie finished with $432.2 million worldwide and gave the MCU its first Asian lead.
It also posted a 98% audience score that stood as the highest in MCU history until Spider-Man: Brand New Day tied it in July.
Back on screen December 18
Liu returns as Shang-Chi in Avengers: Doomsday, in theaters December 18, 2026.
It’s the character’s first movie appearance since the original, more than five years between big-screen outings.
Marvel has already shown him at work: the official trailer includes Shang-Chi squaring off with Channing Tatum’s Gambit.
Liu is also lined up for Avengers: Secret Wars, which follows on December 17, 2027.
Shang-Chi 2 is still nowhere
The anniversary arrives with the sequel exactly where it has sat for five years: untitled, undated, and not shooting.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton said in July that Shang-Chi 2 is “still happening,” and when told to hurry up, answered, “You gotta tell that to the industry!”
Liu has needled the wait himself.
When James Gunn announced Superman: Man of Tomorrow with a 2027 release date, on September 4, 2025, almost a year to the day before this new post, Liu responded with a single blank-stare emoji.
Fans read it instantly: Gunn’s Superman had a second movie on the calendar two years after the first, while Shang-Chi didn’t have one after four.
Avengers: Secret Wars remains the last dated Marvel movie on the calendar, and the sequel isn’t on it.
We laid out ten reasons it may never get made.
For now, the only place Shang-Chi is confirmed to appear is the two Avengers movies.
The first one is out December 18.
