Were Shang-Chi's Ten Rings Made By Eternals?
Contains spoilers for Marvel's "Eternals."
Director Chloé Zhao's new Marvel movie "Eternals" quickly establishes a limitless new technology in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the heroes use ring-based tech which almost looks magical to behold. But this is just incredibly advanced cosmic technology given to the team by the Celestial Arishem. He's the huge, towering being who communes with the Eternals and keeps them on their mission to defend the planet from the Deviants. Although fans now know that Arishem's plan is much more insidious than the heroes think.
The film's ties to the MCU are more about widening the scope and introducing new characters rather than featuring appearances from familiar Avengers or villains. This is definitely a good thing, and Zhao balances 10 new heroes as well as supporting characters and villains, adding extra cameos to the already overstuffed "Eternals."
Now, a new theory suggests that "Eternals" has a surprising connection to another recent Phase Four movie, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." The theory questions whether the titular Ten Rings were actually made by the Eternals before Wenwu (Tony Leung) found them thousands of years ago.
Did Phastos make the Ten Rings?
A recent article from Nerdist points out that a pivotal piece of technology towards the end of the film is remarkably similar to the Ten Rings in "Shang-Chi." Eternal Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) creates a number of rings towards the end of the film to help the team join together and form the "Uni-Mind" so they can stop Tiamut the Celestial from destroying the planet. The bands themselves look incredibly similar to the ones worn by Wenwu and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), which implies it's entirely possible Phastos could've created the original Ten Rings thousands of years ago as other weapons for the Eternals.
"Eternals" points out that Phastos has a hand in the technological advancement of humanity because he can create any device or machinery that he thinks up. As the Nerdist article notes, he has been working on the Uni-Mind for thousands of years, so the Ten Rings could've easily been prototypes. And, not to point out the obvious, but there are 10 Eternals in the movie and 10 rings — seems to be a connection there, don't you think?
Consider also the "Shang-Chi" post-credits scene, where Wong (Benedict Wong) tells the titular hero that the rings are emitting some kind of unknown signal to call someone — or something — out in the universe. If they are indeed Eternals technology, then they might be signaling other Eternals like a beacon.