Warning! Spoilers ahead for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
There's an alternate cut of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings where Wenwu/Mandarin survived. Legendary actor Tony Leung makes his Hollywood debut via the latest Marvel Studios blockbuster. Unfortunately, it might very well be his first and final outing in the MCU as he died towards the end of the movie.
Playing Simu Liu's father in the movie, there's a lot of excitement about Wenwu's debut in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Aside from Leung's performance, it was also Marvel Studios' chance to rectify the character's fake-out introduction in Shane Black's Iron Man 3. It turned out, the primary villain of the threequel, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), hired a struggling actor named Trevor Slattery to be the face of the feared terrorist played by Ben Kingsley. The new MCU flick was able to expertly navigate this plot complication while also establishing the real Mandarin as a well-done antagonist. There is no wonder many fans were disappointed when he didn't survive the film's final fight in Ta-Lo.
Apparently, there's a version of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings where Wenwu survived. Speaking with ET, Cretton confirmed this. However, he didn't get into the specifics of the reason why they veered far from it. Instead, he simply explained that as the story of the movie evolved, the Mandarin's death came out to be. He did tease, however, that anything can happen to the MCU, pertaining to the possibility of the character coming back. Read what Cretton said below:
Yes, there was. Some things just work and some things don't. We're constantly searching for the version of the story that feels most authentic to the characters. I mean, even though these characters are operating on a very operatic level, there's still things that you try that just feel like cheats. And that was one of them. But, you know, also in the MCU, anything can happen.
Wenwu is arguably one of the best villains that Marvel Studios has come up with. He joins the ranks of Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and Vulture (Michael Keaton) who fall more in the moral gray area than being straightforwardly evil. Granted, he spent his early life being a conqueror, but in the context of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, he's motivated by his undying love for his dead wife. Everything else that he did was in an effort to bring her back. It's a misguided cause, but at least it's not simply because he wanted more power or money like generic bad guys are.
In hindsight, Wenwu's death fits better in order to move forward with Shang-Chi's story. While it would be great to see Leung more in the MCU reprising the role, his tragic life needed to end in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings since he simply couldn't accept the fact that his wife was dead. That being said, Cretton's tease about anything that can happen in the MCU leaves the door open for the character's potential return in some capacity.
Source: ET
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