Warning! Spoilers ahead for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Marvel's latest blockbuster, Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, may have set up the MCU's version of Iron Fist. Starring Simu Liu as Marvel's Master of Kung Fu, Shang-Chi perfectly positioned its titular hero to become one of the next Avengers. But it didn't just introduce Shang-Chi and his sister Xialing, who wound up in charge of the legendary Ten Rings terrorist group; it also introduced Ta Lo, a mystical realm that's a pretty deep cut from the comics.
Marvel Studios had a lot of leeway when it came to designing Ta Lo, simply because the pocket dimension has appeared more in Handbooks than in the comics themselves. Amusingly, Shang-Chi drew on Iron Fist's lore, presenting Ta lo as a mystical realm that can only be accessed at specific times, where it is possible to learn a mystical form of martial arts; that's the basic idea behind Iron Fist's city K'un-Lun, where Danny Rand learned how to channel the power of the Iron Fist. In the comics, Rand became Iron Fist by punching the heart of a dragon, meaning he possesses its power. Shang-Chi was stated as having a dragon's heart, albeit in a far more spiritual way. It's a marked improvement.
At first glance, this could be taken as rendering Iron Fist and K'un-Lun superfluous. Still, it's important to remember that, in the comics, K'un-Lun is one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, realms that operate similarly. Each of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven is inspired by different martial art of fantasy trope; K'un-Zi is a city of Dark Magic, ruled by the Crane Mother, while Tiger Island is a tropical paradise where women are expected to cater to a man's every whim. Just as the Iron Fist protects K'un-Lun, so each of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven has a champion. It's possible that, in the MCU, Ta Lo is one of these seven realms and the one who possesses the heart of the dragon - originally Shang-Chi's mother, Ying Li, and now her son is the champion of Ta Lo. Interestingly, recent comics have indeed revealed that each of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven possesses a dragon, meaning Shang-Chi's Great Protector simply supports this theory.
All this means Shang-Chi may not have made Iron Fist redundant. Rather instead, it could potentially have helped set him up with other realms associated with the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven introduced in the inevitable Shang-Chi 2. It's worth noting that Shang-Chi's abilities, whether his martial arts skills or his powers are visually different from those developed by the monks of K'un-Lun, so there would easily be room for both. And the MCU's Iron Fist could potentially borrow from Shang-Chi's Ta Lo in having him gain the heart of the dragon less brutally.
Of course, the interesting question is whether or not the MCU would continue the story of Danny Rand from Marvel Netflix's Iron Fist series. There's currently intense debate over whether the old Marvel Television shows are canon to the MCU, and no doubt many fans would be disappointed to see Iron Fist rebooted simply because it would have implications for its sister shows; still, the fact remains that Iron Fist was one of the poorest Marvel Netflix series, with star Finn Jones failing to demonstrate the kind of martial arts skills needed by one of the so-called "Living Weapons," and even a much-improved season 2 couldn't save it. The MCU would be unlikely to build on such a shaky foundation instead of doing something new and potentially making a new Iron Fist part of the MCU, courtesy of Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings.
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