The Black Widow Cameo You Missed In Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

After years of moving through the world's shadows and rooftops, knife or sniper rifle in hand, the many Black Widows of General Dreykov's (Ray Winstone) mind-controlling Red Room are, thanks to the efforts of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and her allies, free to do as they please. However, most of the freed Black Widows were raised as assassins from a young age and know very little else. As a result, many of them have chosen some pretty interesting new paths in life.

In the years after the events of "Black Widow," for instance, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) tasked herself with finding her fellow assassin sisters scattered around the world and freeing them of their mind control, but the Blip put that on hold. When she's later seen again in "Hawkeye," Yelena has taken to working as an assassin-for-hire for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), an arrangement that sends her on a mission to kill her sister's dear friend, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner).

But Yelena is just one of many Black Widow assassins who are still running around in the MCU. In fact, in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," we get a glimpse of another Widow, one who has taken a bit of a surprising path.

When Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) go to a fight club in Macau, they're looking for his sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang). However, throughout their time at the club, MCU fans get glimpses of several other familiar faces duking it out in different parts of the building. There is, of course, a great sequence showing sorcerer Wong (Benedict Wong) in a suspended cage match with Abomination (Tim Roth), but it's actually a quick glimpse into one of the club's smaller fighting rooms that features a surprise appearance from one recognizable Black Widow.

The quick moment in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" sees a woman dressed in black assassin gear flip her way around a room and throw knives at her opponent, who appears to be a fighter with the same Extremis powers as those seen in "Iron Man 3." Watching the fight, Jon Jon (Ronny Chieng) shouts, " "Nice one, Helen!"

The mention of her name confirms the character's identity: Helen (Jade Xu), one of the assassins who Natasha and Yelena liberated in "Black Widow." As "Shang-Chi" reveals, she's taken to making her money through Xialing's underground fight club in the years since the events of "Black Widow."

Her cameo begs the question: Will we get to see Helen or any of the other freed Black Widows on-screen again? At this point, it certainly seems like a legitimate possibility.