Marvel's 'Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings' May Resume Production Later This Month In Australia

While many areas of the United States are dealing with a severe rise in COVID-19 cases, much of the rest of the world has squashed the spread of the coronavirus pandemic rather successfully. As they've reopened businesses, people around the world have been responsible about wearing masks and social distancing, and that means film and TV production is in the process of starting again. While Disney already has Avatar 2 back to work in New Zealand, Marvel Studios is looking to turn on the Hollywood machine again in Australia.

Disney and Marvel are looking at resuming production on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings sometime later this month at Fox Studios in Sydney. But as with most plans Hollywood has right now, nothing is set in stone.

Deadline has news on the Shang-Chi movie resuming production in Australia. The movie had barely started shooting when the coronavirus pandemic started spreading around the world. Director Destin Daniel Cretton actually had the production paused before an official shutdown order came from the studio. The filmmaker took extra precautions since Cretton recently had a baby, so he consulted with a doctor, got tested for COVID-19, and isolated himself just to be safe. Thankfully, he never got sick.

Australia has only had just over 8,000 total cases of COVID-19, with only 104 deaths due to complications from the virus. Their daily numbers have risen over the past week, but the number of new cases for the entire country have remained significantly lower than many areas of the United States. For July 2, which is already over in Australia, they only had 81 new cases.

In order to ensure the safety of the cast and crew of Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings, everyone traveling to the country will be quarantined upon arrival. From there, Marvel Studios will comply with the guidelines that have been identified by the Australian government, and they'll get back to work with enhanced safety protocols in place. But if things happen to take a turn for the worse in Australia, the studio won't hesitate to hold off. Thankfully, Australia is handling the coronavirus situation much better than the United States, so it shouldn't be a problem.

As of now, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is slated to open on May 7, 2021, kicking off next year's blockbuster summer. But that's a release date change that came with Marvel's overall release date shuffling, which included Black Widow being pushed to November, and The Eternals delayed until spring of 2021. Marvel could be forced to reconfigure some of their future plans if any further complications from the coronavirus pandemic arise, so there's a chance we could see Shang-Chi getting delayed because of that, but clearly they're hoping for the best.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings stars Simu Liu as the titular superhero, and also includes Awkwafina and Tony Leung. While specific story details are still under wraps, the title indicates ties to the terrorist organization that kidnapped Tony Stark in the original Iron Man movie. As for how that will resonate with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we're very curious to see how that all pans out.