Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

The Eagles song "Hotel California" is a smarter fit for Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings than viewers may initially realize. The MCU has a reputation for integrating popular culture into its blockbuster movies. The trend began with Iron Man, who loved ACDC, and it even became a plot point in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy movies - courtesy of Peter Quill's mix tapes. Shang-Chi lives up to this tradition in an amusing way, even incorporating a couple of karaoke scenes where Shang-Chi and his best friend Katy sing together, but it prominently features one particular song: "Hotel California," by the Eagles.

This seems to be one of Katy's favorite songs, and she has a habit of panic-singing it in a dangerous situation in order to throw enemies off; apparently she sang it when she first met Shang-Chi a decade ago. The song even bookends the film, because it turns up in a karaoke session in Shang-Chi's mid-credits scene, when Katy and Shang-Chi take Wong out for a night on the town. But why is this song so significant?

Related: Every MCU Easter Egg In Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

"Hotel California" works on multiple levels. It's appropriate that Katy sang it when she first met Shang-Chi (going by the name Shaun), because - though she didn't know it - he had just arrived on U.S. soil. His first experience of life in San Francisco was of a would-be bully interrupted by Katy singing, "Welcome to the Hotel California," which seems amusingly appropriate. But the significance goes deeper than that, because - though Katy probably doesn't know it - the message of the song is pretty bleak. As Don Henley explained when he wrote it, the song is about the loss of innocence and the cost of naiveté, and how someone who has checked in to the Hotel California can never truly leave. It parallels Shang-Chi's own journey, the loss of childhood innocence after his mother's death and his attempt to leave the Ten Rings behind him. Shang-Chi has tried to "check out" of his family business, but he can never really be free of it.

Shang-Chi and Katy

Shang-Chi's post-credits scene throws a more positive spin on this, though, redeeming it. This scene is about establishing Shang-Chi's place in the MCU's pantheon of superheroes, as he interacts with Wong, Bruce Banner, and Captain Marvel; Bruce makes this explicit when he welcomes Shang-Chi to what he calls "the circus." Shang-Chi has now "checked in" to a new life, as a Marvel superhero, and he can never be the same again. Nor does he have any intention of trying to "check out" of this superhero lifestyle, instead welcoming it by bringing Wong into his old life for a karaoke session.

"Hotel California" fits with Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings on several levels, but it is this final twist that truly makes it a satisfying song choice for the latest MCU blockbuster. A song that is actually quite bleak and cynical is flipped upside-down, becoming a promise to viewers that Shang-Chi is sticking around in the MCU, and that he will have a lasting impact on the franchise.

More: Shang-Chi Ending Explained: 6 Biggest Questions, Answered

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