Shang-Chi's Two Surprise MCU Returns, Explained

While Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings provided no shortage of unexpected twists for the MCU, perhaps the biggest was the return of not one but two long forgotten faces--Tim Roth's Abomination, last seen in the Edward Norton Incredible Hulk movie, who was teased in the trailers, and another (arguably more surprising) special appearance who went on to play a core role in the film.

This article includes spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, please proceed with caution.

That's right, we're talking about Ben Kingsly's Trevor AKA The Fake Mandarin, from Iron Man 3. Poor Trevor has apparently been living in the Ten Rings compound for years after Wenwu captured him with the intent of executing him. Instead, however, Trevor did what he does best and improvised some acting, which inadvertently landed him a job as Wenwu's personal jester-slash-prisoner. Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing find him in the bowels of the compound having apparently lost even more of his marbles since the last time we saw him.

Speaking of, the last time we saw him was all the way back in Iron Man 3. By all accounts, Trevor was a one-off for the MCU prior to this point, which wasn't all that surprising. During Phases 1 and 2, one-and-done villains were the trend with bad guys like Iron Monger, Whiplash, and Ultron taking center stage while the slower burn villains with repeat appearances like Thanos or Loki drifted in and out of the spotlight. However, through Phase 3 and now into Phase 4, the MCU has seemed more and more interested in looking back for self-referential pulls (think Red Skull on Vormir or certain episodes of What If…?).

Trevor's return represents one of the most surprising outcomes within that push--say what you will about Iron Man 3, but its Mandarin twist could have been very easily glossed over and never referenced again. Wenwu even has a brief bit of exposition in this movie explaining how he watched these events from afar and thought they were completely absurd. It would have been easy to just leave it at that and let the memory of those Phase 2 choices go gently into the night with a new, more legitimate Ten Rings introduced to replace them.

But, according to director Destin Daniel Cretton, getting Ben Kingsly back on board with the MCU was as simple as a phone call--and something he definitely wanted to do. In speaking with GameSpot, Cretton explained that "yes, it really did just take [a phone call]. I feel very lucky and privileged to have worked with Sir Ben Kingsly, and the conversation with him beforehand--it was such a pleasant surprise to learn how deeply he cares about that character, Trevor, and how much he wants to see Trevor go to the next stage of his life. It was so fun to watch him get into that character, it was one of the highlights for me."

Of course, Cretton was unable to confirm or deny whether Trevor would be making any more appearances in the MCU after Shang-Chi. Presumably he was able to leave Ta Lo with the others, but we never actually see him in the aftermath of the battle, so it's entirely possible that he will spend the rest of his life hanging out with his little monster buddies and practicing his sonnets. Maybe that's the best possible ending for him.

As for Tim Roth's Abomination, we're left with even more questions--namely what this could mean in terms of the Multiverse and the Norton Hulk movies, which the MCU has bobbed and weaved around since the introduction of Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner back in The Avengers. We do know that he and Wong are apparently working with one another, however, at least in terms of their little magical fight club racket, so regardless of when or if Abomination shows up again, he probably won't be all that bad a guy.

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