WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, now in theaters.
After the events of Avengers: Endgame, the Avengers lost a few members while taking down Thanos and saving the lives of half the known universe, but they were still together as a team. Marvel is now giving us a hint of the future of the team through a new ad campaign that it based around Shang-Ci being the newest member of the team.
The ad follows the ending of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, that brings Shang-Chi into contact with both Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner, both very much still members of the famous superhero team.
The commercial opens with past footage of Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow and Thor, with a voiceover of Michelle Yeoh's Ying Nan from Shang-Chi saying, "Tonight we give thanks to all those who came before us, who made us who we are today," before then text on the screen says, "Marvel's New Avenger...is here" and showing scenes from Legend of the Ten Rings before a spotlight on Shang-Chi himself saying, "I'm ready."
Simu Liu, who stars as Shang-Chi, recently told The Hollywood Reporter, "In terms of what's next, I know what's on my mind is the same as what's on everybody else's mind. And hopefully, there's an Avengers in the future, somewhere," suggesting that Liu sees the same hype material than we do for a future Avengers movie (the fifth one in the series).
It seems clear that Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will include characters like Shang-Chi exploring team-ups with other heroes, presumably with an Avengers 5 playing a major role in that interaction. Marvel Studios President/Marvel Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige recently noted, "The early reactions to the characters and to [Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings] itself gives me great hope that that people will want to see more of these characters. We certainly have many ideas of where to take them and where to put them... We know the movie's working when it's not just the title character that people ask about, but it is the co-stars or the supporting players that people ask about."
This new ad campaign seems to make it clear that if we see Shang-Chi in the future, it will be as an Avenger in some way, shape or form.
Source: YouTube