Are There Pokémon in ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’?

Before his 2021 feature film debut, Shang-Chi was a Marvel superhero that most people had never heard of. Modeled after Bruce Lee, he’s a master of weapon-based Kung Fu and the greatest martial artist within Marvel, capable of holding his own against superhuman opponents. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the 25th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), brought this unique superhero to mainstream audiences.

Here, Shang-Chi is forced to confront his past after his father’s terrorist organization draws him into a search for a mythical village. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a critical and commercial success. But after watching the film, some viewers were left wondering the same question: did the MCU just sneak Pokémon into its movie?

Was That Ninetales and Moltres in ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’?

Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last 30 years, then you’ve probably heard of Pokémon. What started out as a children’s video game on the Nintendo Game Boy morphed unexpectedly into a global phenomenon. It’s now the world’s highest-grossing media franchise, expanding beyond video games and into anime, manga, trading cards, books, and other merchandise.

The concept is simple: humans co-exist with creatures known as Pokémon, a large variety of species with special powers. Some Pokémon are instantly recognizable to mainstream audiences, like the franchise’s flagship character, Pikachu. Others are only recognizable to fans — and it’s these fans who claimed to spot several Pokémon in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

In the film, Shang-Chi travels to Ta Lo, a mythical village that exists in a separate dimension from our own. This place is filled with magical creatures that seem to resemble Pokémon. At one point, we see a nine-tailed fox that looks an awful lot like the Pokémon, Ninetales. And wait, was that the fiery, legendary bird Pokémon, Moltres, that we just saw fly across our screens?

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What You’re Really Seeing Are Chinese Mythological Creatures

So did Marvel sneak some Pokémon into its movie or what? The short answer: not at all. Those aren’t Pokémon you’re seeing; they’re actually creatures based on Chinese mythology. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings strove to represent Asian culture, and not just with its cast. Its whole story is dripping with Chinese mythology. That’s not Ninetales you saw. That majestic, white, nine-tailed fox is the huli jing. Although they’re capable of shape-shifting, huli jings are usually depicted as nine-tailed fox spirits. They can be benevolent or malevolent, depending on the story. In fact, Ninetales’ design was inspired by the huli jing.

Oh, and that bird you saw? That wasn’t Moltres. That was the fenghuang, also known as the Chinese Phoenix. The fenghuang reigns over all other birds and is regarded as the feminine counterpart to the traditionally masculine and more iconic Chinese dragon (though neither are really given genders anymore). Its body was originally a composite of several different animals, but today, its body is made up of several different birds. Although it’s sometimes depicted as a fireball, like in the movie, its most common depiction shows the fenghuang with black, white, red, yellow, and green colors.

Sorry, Pokémon fans, but you’ll never see Pikachu or Mew pop up in a Marvel movie. But hopefully, one day, we’ll get a live-action adaptation that portrays Pokémon more like this: realistic, magical creatures.

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The Future of Shang Chi

So what’s next for Shang-Chi? Despite not being a mainstream superhero like Spider-Man or Captain America, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings performed well critically and commercially. The film was lauded for its exploration and representation of Asian culture, setting it a part from other entries in the MCU. It grossed $432 million worldwide in 2021 and received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. With success like that, you know Shang-Chi is getting a sequel.

Marvel greenlit the untitled Shang-Chi sequel almost immediately; the movie came out in September 2021, and by December of that year, director Destin Daniel Cretton was already working on a sequel. But the project got sidelined when Cretton was tapped to direct a fourth MCU Spider-Man film, a sequel to Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was deemed a higher priority. Since then, there haven’t been any updates.

The superhero fatigue that slowed down Marvel’s output, limiting the studio to just one movie release in 2024, probably hasn’t helped. Shang-Chi fans will unfortunately have to wait a little longer for a sequel. But hey, if you’re a Pokémon fan, then at least you have a surplus of content there.