Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has a special connection with Black Widow hidden in plain sight, as the easter-egg is already available in a clip. The clip shows a scene from Shang-Chi where the titular hero (Simu Liu) visits an illegal superpowered fight club, where he witnesses a duel between a Black Widow character and a villain inspired by Iron Man 3.

In the clip, Shang-Chi is welcomed into a fighting ring that streams deadly combats on the dark web. The host of these events, Jon Jon (Ronnie Chieng), is excited to show the place around, and during the short scene, we can see several fights happening simultaneously. One of these fights features a Black Widow named Helen (Jade Xu), whose face was previously shown as one of the active Widows Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) asks Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) to save in the standalone film. It looks like Yelena was successful in her mission, as Helen seems to be doing just fine as she takes down a man under the effects of Extremis, the combat-enhancement drug developed by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) in Iron Man 3.

The easter-egg becomes even more interesting when we learn that Xu’s return to the MCU was teased by Marvel back in July. During a Black Widow watch party on Twitter, Marvel revealed that “widow pictures featured on Dreykov (Ray Winstone) monitors were daughters of the crew.” One of these women was Xu, who Marvel told could “even have a brief cameo in a future Marvel movie.” And there we go, months before Shang-Chi hit the theaters, Marvel already told us about the Black Widow connection, and we didn’t realize it.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton from a script he co-wrote with David Callaham and Andrew Lanham, Shang-Chi’s cast includes Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, Tony Leung Chiu-wai as the hero’s criminal father and the leader of the Ten Rings, Florian Munteanu as the villain Razor Fist, Meng’er Zhang as Shang-Chi’s estranged sister Xialing, Michelle Yeoh as the protector of a mythical city Jiang Li, and Fala Chen.

The resurgence of the Ten Rings in the MCU will allow Ben Kingsley to reprise his role as the fake-Mandarin he played in Iron Man 3. Kingsley is not the only MCU returning character on Shang-Chi as Benedict Wong will also be returning as Wong, Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) right arm. The crossovers don’t stop there, though, as the master of magic will be fighting The Incredible Hulk’s Abomination. Tim Roth is expected to come back as the voice of Abomination in the movie before starring in the upcoming She-Hulk series.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is available on theaters right now. Check the new clip below:

Here’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings official synopsis:

Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. The film also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng.

via Collider