- According to a new report, Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will resume filming in Australia in July after nearly three months of delays due to the pandemic.
- The cast and crew of the MCU Phase 4 movie will reportedly be forced to quarantine upon their arrival in Australia, pursuant to the country’s coronavirus restrictions.
- Shang-Chi was originally scheduled to premiere in theaters on February 12th, 2021, but Marvel has since moved the movie back to May 7th, 2021.
Before the novel coronavirus pandemic fundamentally altered our collective reality, 2020 was shaping up to be an exciting year for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase 4 was set to kick off in May with Black Widow, which, much like Spider-Man: Far From Home, may not have advanced the overall plot of the MCU, but would’ve filled in the mysterious backstory of Natasha Romanoff. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was scheduled to debut on Disney+ in August, bringing the Avengers to the small screen. But Phase 4 was also going to bring new heroes into the fold, like Shang-Chi, but the pandemic has unfortunately delayed their arrival by at least a few months.
Thankfully, now that some countries have gotten the spread of the infection under control, filming on movies and TV shows is slowly coming back to life, including Marvel Studios productions. In fact, according to Deadline, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is planning to restart filming in Australia later this month.
First unit production of Shang-Chi was suspended in early March when director Destin Daniel Cretton decided to self-isolate due to the advice of a doctor. He was not experiencing symptoms at the time, but he had a newborn baby and wanted to get tested for COVID-19 out of an abundance of caution. His test came back negative, but by the end of March, virtually every movie and television set around the world had closed up shop.
Deadline’s Sydney source says that Marvel is taking “careful steps” to bring the production back online now that the infection rate in Australia is relatively low. Australia’s borders are closed, and have been for months, but cast and crew working on the film will reportedly be quarantined upon their arrival in the country. “Since 29 March 2020, all travellers arriving in Australia by air or sea must be isolated in mandatory quarantine accommodation for 14 days from their arrival, with few exceptions,” explains the Australian Department of Health.
Shang-Chi will be the second
