Marvel Actress Reveals Why She Passed on Returning to the MCU

Marvel fans may be getting lucky with some of their favorite characters from Netflix’s Defenders series returning in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this year. While nothing has been confirmed yet, Charlie Cox is rumored to reprise his role as Matt Murdock AKA Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 17, 2021), and Vincent D’Onofrio may pop up in Hawkeye on Disney+ as Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin.

However, Iron Fist’s Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing) recently revealed she had a chance to be in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings but ultimately had to pass on the opportunity.

Related: ‘Hawkeye’ Performance Underwhelming for Marvel Studios

Iron Fist also starred Finn Jones as Danny Rand, who has been very vocal about wanting to return to the Marvel Universe — although it does not seem many Marvel fans are actually asking for this. Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing was one of the few things fans liked about the critically panned Iron Fist series. She reprised her role as the martial arts expert and former member of the Hand in the Defenders series and even appeared in the Luke Cage series.

Sitting down with Entertainment Weekly to promote her new film Matrix: Resurrections, Henwick revealed that at the time she got the chance to audition for Bugs in the film, also starring Keanu Reeves, that she had a chance to be part of Shang-Chi (2021) but was forced to pick between the two opportunities as neither Disney nor Warner Brothers would let her audition for both roles.

She called it a “red-pill/blue-pill moment.”

Related: Marvel Makes Notable, Uncharacteristic ‘Avengers’ Continuity Mistake

Henwick did not say what role she was up for in Shang-Chi. It could have been Shang-Chi’s (Simu Liu) best friend Katy (Awkwafina) or his sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). Or perhaps Marvel Studios planned a cameo of Colleen Wing in the first Asian-led superhero film. She would have fit perfectly in the scene of the underground cage fighting that featured cameos from Doctor Strange (2018) actor Benedict Wong (Wong) and The Incredible Hulk (2008) Abomination (Tim Roth).

Luckily, since she passed on the opportunity which could have recast her in a different role she can still easily return as Collen Wing at some point. Maybe she could even bring back Misty Knight (Simone Missick) for a Daughters of the Dragon series, which was rumored to be in development before the cancelation of all the Netflix Marvel Series.

Let us know if you want Jessica Henwick back in the MCU.