Shang-Chi‘s Simu Liu says he’s hoping there’s “an Avengers” in his future
He also described getting the life-changing casting call from Marvel's Kevin Feige
Film News Simu Liu
We’re less than a week out now from the release of Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Marvel’s latest effort to keep the MCU kicking along in the face of both COVID and the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame. (You can read our full review right here.) And while Shang-Chi has no dearth of talent—including Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, and Awkwafina—much of the focus on the film’s lead-up has, understandably, fallen on star Simu Liu, who went from petitioning for the part on Twitter a few years back to actually starring in his own Marvel blockbuster.
Not that that rise, which saw Liu move from the (apparently highly contentious) set of his Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience to headlining a multi-million dollar action spectacular, is any reason to rest on one’s laurels, apparently; Liu has his eyes on taking Shang-Chi all the way to the top of the MCU pecking order. “I know what’s on my mind is the same as what’s on everybody else’s mind,” he said in an interview this week with The Hollywood Reporter, “And hopefully, there’s an Avengers in the future, somewhere.”
It’s now been two years since the most recent (possibly final?) (but definitely not final) Avengers movie, the record-obliterating Endgame, with Marvel itself poking some light fun at the whole “Who can replace Cap and Iron Man?” question with the marketing for its upcoming Eternals. For what it’s worth, Liu also makes it clear that he has no future knowledge of any of Kevin Feige and co.’s future plans, noting that “All of the media frenzy that surrounds one of those properties is going to be a whole beast unto itself,” and that “We’re just so focused on pushing this movie out to the world and making sure people watch it.” (Wherever it’s safe to do so in theaters, he considerately noted.)
Outside those future ambitions, Liu also detailed the circumstances during which he got Feige’s call about his casting—“I had just woken up from a nap, and I was in my underwear, eating shrimp crackers”—and touches on his early days in the acting trenches, from getting slathered in blue paint to play an extra in Pacific Rim, to getting apparently just brutalized by a bunch of tweens while playing a birthday party Spider-Man with a less-than-convincing Spidey Suit: “I really don’t blame a lot of the children for not believing that I was the real Spider-Man and just doing everything that they could to prove that I was not the real Spider-Man, including but not limited to: punching, kicking, grabbing and trying to rip the suit,” Liu said. “There are still a lot of very traumatic memories from that time.”
80 Comments
I was looking forward to this movie, and ialready admired Simu Liu for his work on Kim’s Convenience.Then I find out that he eats shrimp crackers. I just don’t know now.
Are shrimp crackers something like oyster crackers, or are they like a shellfish version of Chicken in a Biskit?
Think Cheetos, but with (I think) shrimp powder mixed in with the potato powder.
Lighter and crunchier. But if you lick a Chicken in a Biscuit cracker and taste chicken you can lick a shrimp cracker and taste shrimp.
They taste more like Chicken in a Biskit. Shrimps crackers are also known as prawn crackers or shrimp chips. There are 2 distinct kinds. The first that most Asians think about are this:The second kind looks like this:The second kind can get stale in a few days. That is why you have the option of buying little uncooked pieces to fry a fresh batch yourself.
Shrimp crackers are a common East Asian snack so I’m not sure if you’re
trying to make a joke that didn’t land, don’t know much about how other
cultures eat or…actually, I don’t have a third option.
Prawn Crackers are so highly regarded in the UK that in the 1970’s they moved beyond being a staple of Chinese takeaways and onto supermarket and convenience store shelves in the form of ‘Skips’
I was surprised to find out that UK has the crisps game on lockdown. So many yummy/interesting flavours!
Shrimp crackers/chips are awesome, although I suppose that depends on whether one likes shrimp.
Shrimp crackers aren’t my thing. Shrimp CHIPS, on the other hand…
Shrimp crackers are a Toronto staple. Like racoons and bicycle thieves, an inherent part of the city.
Here to profess my undying love of shrimp crackers, although given the choice I’ll fuck with bonchi rice snacks instead every time.Also Simu Liu seems kind of intense, but it sounds like people have been discounting him his entire career, so I don’t blame him. Gotta say I really liked him in Kim’s Convenience, and I’m rooting for him and the movie.
I hope its awhile before we have another group of good guy Avengers. I wouldn’t mind having a Dark Avengers or Thunderbirds, as well as a Young Avengers. In pro wrestling terms its a “heel” / “face” thing. We’ve had a long good guy — face— run with the original Avengers. Nothing torturously satisfying than to follow that with a long bad guy — heel— run. There’s nothing more enjoyable in wrestling than watching the villain triumph again and again as the audiences boos get more passionate with each victory until, finally, the face achieves victory to a rapturous ovation. That’s what it would be like to see the Avengers return after a long period where villains have claimed their rightful place.
A Thunderbirds storyline feels likely, as does the Young Avengers. But both in-universe and from a real world marketing standpoint, it’d be hard to picture Disney not wanting to use the Avengers name for those movies.
Thunderbolts? Thunderbirds are very British puppets…
And yet puppets confusingly named after the Mercury Seven, thus confusing matters even further.
As long as Troy Tempest never appears in the MCU or anywhere else, I’ll be happy.
Tossing aside Lois Maxwell’s Atalanta for Marina solely and expressly because her inability to speak made her “the perfect woman” – Sam Shore and Phones really should have given Troy a stern talking to.
I expect Disney to use the Avengers monicker, I’m talking about the composition of the team carrying it, as in unquestionably heroic adults as opposed to young heroes in training or outright villains.
With the Abomination popping up in ‘Shang Chi’ in whatever way, I think they’re setting up some pieces for a Thunderbolts-style story, and I’m here for it. “What if superhero team, but bad guys?” is often not my favourite take, but I think the MCU has earned some faith that they can make it happen well.
I wouldn’t mind having a Dark Avengers or Thunderbirds
Lol, I agree with this. For more wrestling lingo, we call that “heat,” and the more dastardly the heel, the greater it is! And I think that’s sort of what the MCU delivered in a way with the Infinity War/Endgame dynamic. One was almost entirely a villain’s victory, followed by the heroes’ comeback. Could Marvel do it again in a long form way? Maybe. An entire Phase of movies with the bad guys winning? For the sake of changing things up, I don’t think it’s ever been done, but I’d love to see it. Reforming the supervillains, however, and making them lovable- we’re getting quite enough of that already, thank you very much.
I dunno, whether they do it in the main MCU or branch off into a whole other story/timeline, I want to see some of the next few movies set up for Doctor Doom.
After Thanos, he’s the vallain we need.
Especially if they’re working toward versions of either the original Secret Wars or Hickman’s version.
I’d quite like to see some combination of Marvel’s royalty clash with one another, or Doom and Namor either being allies or fighting one another like in the old Marvel Supervillain Team-Up days.
An entire Phase of movies with the bad guys winning?
You nailed it. I’d love to see that. Maybe the heroes get an occasional win but the momentum of the Phase seems in the villains favor. Wrestling is really good at this and it occurs fairly often in anime too.
I hope that they replace him with Henry Golding for The Avengers, just Edward Norton him y’know? He just turned me off the film with his “THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE IS AN UNDERDOG.” Tripe. Like fuck off with thinking that everyone’s Anti-Asian bullshit man. He’s too thin-skinned to be a main guy and I loved him in Kim’s Convenience, I loved him taking their ass to court but man shouting at the clouds that Marvel is an underdog is just woof! And the reason why I say replace him with Henry Golding is because Henry Golding already did this film better in GI Joe Origins Snake Eyes. Plus Henry Golding seems like he understands that he shouldn’t be Kanye West whereas that’s Simu Liu’s meltdowns remind me of
He meant the movie in which he stars is the underdog within the MCU, but also misinterpreted the comment that was made about it being an experiment. It happens.
To be REAL clear, if you actually look at the original tweet, his comment says absolutely NOTHING about anti-Asian sentiment, and everything about the movie being a “guaranteed” hit instead of an experiment. That’s all. It was first interpreted the former way by overly sensitive white dudes in their feels about “reverse racism”, and THAT’S what got picked up by the media and those overly (if reasonably) sensitive to overly sensitive white dudes.As I’ve said previously about this non-event, it’s like Mean Gene said “Next Wrestlemania is going to be a challenge for you” to Macho Man in a wrestling promo, and the Twitterverse’s interpretation of Mr. Savage responding “NOTHING’S A CHALLENGE, I’M A GUARANTEED LOCK FOR THE BELT, THE CREAM SHALL RISE TO THE TOP, AND THE FANS KNOW IT, OH YEEEAH” was that he was REALLY calling Mean Gene bigoted against, I dunno, Macho Men. Liu was hyping up his movie. The end.I guarantee you there was a call between Liu and folks at Marvel and possibly even Chapek himself where everyone in the call went “Boy, that got WAY out of hand, and no amount of clarification will make it better, we should just let this shit peter out”.
I think there are people who so want this to be a race thing that they’ve brought a share-bag of shoulder chips to a party that isn’t happening. To me, it seems pretty-straight-forward: Chapek talks about a release schedule being an experiment in just ambiguous enough a way that it can be interpreted as a slight against the film itself; Liu does so, but not in a way that brings up race in the way that some people claim, and in any case wants to shift the conversation back in a more hyped direction, so he talks about the film as an underdog by Marvel standards; the reality of the film (first Asian-led MCU joint) is such that bad faith racial tones can be read into a bunch of comments from all sides if you want to.
Though he seems to do this constantly…Simu seems to be a bit too online at all times along w/being keyboard happy. Not to mention a men’s rights activist. Which is never a good thing. There is a reason he rubs people the wrong way.
men’s rights activistI haven’t heard anything about this. What did he say?
I tried to do a deep dive on this and came up with next to nothing. I’m either missing a major piece or what I did come up with (some random threads on Reddit) was so laughable and convoluted that I have to seriously question the perspective/intent of anyone pushing the “Liu is an MRA” angle.
Apparently a wanna-be… not sure what to call them, culture critic? Twitterati? Someone who wants to be famous for hot takes on twitter. They came hard after Liu because Liu has spoken out about issues effecting Asian men and the emasculation of Asian men as depicted in popular culture. Seems like a no brainer to me. Somehow this person – I’m not going to use their name because it seems their big MO is self-promotion – twisted this into some kind of attack on Asian women and as being pro-MRA. That’s… it. So unless I’m missing some critical piece of the story, it’s a completely insane, parasitic stance that seeks to tear down Liu to build up some kind of ultra-progressive cred. And I say that as someone is super progressive and liberal… from what I can tell it’s the kind of shit that gives gives liberals like me a bad name, all in the service of self-promotion.
If someone can respond with hard proof to point to I’m happy to look at it and consider changing my tune.
Between the whole debacle with whalberg and the,“Wanting to feel desired as an individual is valid!But if you see sexualization and objectification as the pinnacle for racial equality, you have a lot of work to do.”, Boslyn Zalusam hot take…(name changed for obvious reasons) is not the only person to feel this way about simu and is someone I rarely agree with. Let’s say almost never BUT there is always that exception to the rule. https://www.ecaasu.org/when-representation-stops-being-enough-notes-on-simu-liu-andrew-yang-and-what-society-tells-us-we-should-be-grateful-for/
I appreciate the attempt to provide context but the linked-to article just raises more questions. First, I don’t see anything mentioned about MRA. Second, the writer of this article actually seemed to think Andrew Yang would become the “darling of Manhattan” and New York City’s next Mayor. This makes me question their judgement and understanding of the world on a very basic level. Finally and most importantly, I’ll acknowledge this article does raise some very interesting questions about compromise. Liu made some aggressive statements re: Mark Wahlberg (statements I happen to agree with). Liu made those statements when he was 25 years old. Six years later, he deletes those tweets because he’s costarring with Wahlberg in a movie that could alter the trajectory of his fledgling career. So, is Liu a race traitor? A fair weather activist? A hypocrite? Or maybe someone who has had to come to terms with the idea that compromise is a necessary part of navigating the world — indeed, something necessary for anyone who wants to be successful, or comfortable, or even just live, in a modern, wealthy nation like the US, Canada, or really any other developed country. I would call this growing up. Because I’ve worked at places and for people I don’t necessarily agree with 100%, and if I had been spewing my unfiltered and unvarnished thoughts out for the universe, especially at the age of 25, and then had to navigate those thoughts with future employers and coworkers six years later, I’d probably look like a dick too.
So the article, with its moral grandstanding and righteousness and circular-firing-squad, perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good logic, struck me as something written by someone who has never had to compromise, who has nothing on the line, and can afford to sacrifice practicality for the sake of performative progressive outrage. I started to feel the hair on the back of my neck tingle, the same way it did in 2016, when I heard similar whining from supposed liberals who opted to vote for third party vanity candidates, and even earlier, when I saw the phenomenon in the very first election I had the misfortune to vote in, the 2000 presidential race. And then I looked up the author. This article was written by a child. Literally. The writer is a child. They are an undergrad student at what is one of the most expensive private universities in the country. They hail from a wealthy Chicago suburb with a median income of close to $100K per household. They have worked as an intern for a high-profile US Senator, Tammy Duckworth, someone who at one point was floated as a potential VP. Do you know what kind of family connections you need to have to land an internship like that? What kind of power?By the way — Senator Duckworth supports continued U.S. military aid to Israel and opposes the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. What does the articles writer have to say about that, after aggressively attacking Andrew Yang for the same position? Did the writer share their views with Senator Duckworth when they were interning for her? How could they keep their criticism to themselves? How could they support someone with such an odious position? Perhaps they decided to temper their speech and opinions to forward their career… but that would make them… what? Not much different from Liu. (By the way, I’ll note here I actually really really like Senator Duckworth. But I hate her stance on Palestine. See how being a grown up works?)For whatever reason, perhaps because he gives off somewhat of a bro-y vibe, Liu is attracting criticism from a very tiny, very vocal, subset of extremely online Asian Americans who traffic in the impractical politics of outrage.TLDR: I am still not convinced.
‘Let this shit peter out’ is almost always the right move if you’re in a forward-facing role and Twitter goes nuts about something you said. Furthering the conversation fuels the fire, and apologies seldom fix things.
Yes!
Be honest: does Henry Golding look Chinese to you?
It’s fascinating to me that Liu misinterpreted a sloppy comment and went off all half-cocked about the cast of Shang Chi being “underdogs”, and you misinterpreted that sloppy comment as being about “the MCU” being “underdogs” and also went off half-cocked. We’ve come full circle. A ring, if you will.
Like some manner of circle jerk?
“We’ve come full circle. A ring, if you will.”A half-cocked ring.
Are you Asian tho?
cuz if not, then ur just someone shouting that racism doesn’t exist…
Shrimp crackers!!! ❤️❤️❤️Don’t knock’em till you tried them. They are absolutely awesome.
My wife (a white girl from Australia) loves any and every kind of dried fish flavor snack. She has the only snack drawer at her work that is 100% safe from thieving.
Same here, although the rest of my family thinks I’m gross for liking them. They’re amazing. Definitely the one snack I get from time to time that I don’t have to worry about the wife or kids stealing.
If you have an Asian market near you, look for Turtle Chips. They’re like bite-sized crack.
I’ve never seen these before, but I’ll totally check them out. The flavor is based on rice cakes that have a sweet bean powder coating. Those rice cakes are amazing, so I have no doubt these crackers would be, too!
As a half Korean, I hate seafood, which is very going against the grain for my Korean half. But I LOVE these crackers. They are amazing.
I don’t think there should be any more “Avengers” movies. MCU movies, sure. Occasional team-ups, like the newest Spider-Man? Sure.But I don’t want to see a team-up movie bringing in every character under the banner of “The Avengers.” I just don’t. That name/organization should be put to bed.
Any Marvel movie is pretty much and Avengers movie now with all the different people showing up in each others movies.
I don’t want them to use the name or the organization in-universe is what I’m saying. Call it what you want in the real world. But technically Strange was never an Avenger and Spider-Man wasn’t, either.
The organization still exists and has resources. I don’t think we’ve heard anything official about its fate post-Endgame, but I have a hard time thinking that Rhodey and Sam just walked away from all of that.
But let’s be honest, they’re eventually going to have all the solo heroes and one or more Eternals team up to fight a threat, probably Kang. If they’re not called the Avengers, what should they be called? The Defenders is the obvious one, except that people will view that as a reference to the Netflix team-up. Outside of the Fantastic Four and X-Men, there aren’t any other Marvel teams approaching a high profile otherwise.
Given that the core of the team will probably be the Young Avengers from the comics, I think the odds of them not being called the Avengers is slim to none.
Spiderman is definitely an Avenger. Tony knighted him or whatever on the spaceship.But besides that everybody in that final battle is an Avenger. Cap called it:
I’m sure you’re right, I don’t remember. But he never attended any meetings or lived at the dorm, so can he REALLY call himself an Avenger?
As long as he does his share of the chore roster and pitches into the emergency pizza fund, he’s good.
“He’s never even attended a meeting Cap! Kick him off the tour!”
Dr Strange and Spider-Man have both been members of The Avengers.
There’s no stopping that train. The Avengers as a team, as a brand, and in-universe, overshadows every movie the MCU makes. It was sort of already happening in previous Phases too. (as everybody asked “Where are the Avengers?” anytime a character went solo.) It’s all Marvel can do to NOT call every subsequent film Avengers in some way.Avengers: Black WidowAvengers: Shang-Chi
Avengers: Spider-Man: No Way HomeAvengers: Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of MadnessAvengers: Eternals
When I eventually see this film (at home) I’m sure it will be enjoyable.
There’s always one of these comments per thread lol
they’ll look like assholes now if they don’t put him in one, so why not put it out there
Probably be part of agents of atlas since Disney+ is looking to do something with jimmy woos character which is actually popular before he becomes an avenger he needs to read a comic and let it go…Disney has said they are doing a version of secret invasion this lines up/makes sense….for the love of god make your stars read the source material!!!
I’m starting not to like Liu. In his interviews he comes across as kind of an ass. He was ok in Kim’s Convenience, just ok. The show itself was very good. Maybe he could just be happy with his new movie?
Mr Liu seems to forget that Disney/Marvel now have the Fantastic Four, all the X-Men and Deadpool in their roster. Most moviegoers have never heard of Shang-Chi. When the next Avengers movie is finally written and released, sure, maybe he’ll have a role in it, but not a big role, for sure.
They have been laying a shitload of track for the Young Avengers and Thunderbirds, along with setting up a lot of new standalone heroes for them to not be doing an Avengers-style movie with them.
And I think we all forget how few people other than nerds knew who Iron Man or Thor were, once upon a time, to say nothing of Guardians of the Galaxy. The fact that people don’t know Shang-Chi yet means nothing.
And I think we all forget how few people other than nerds knew who Iron Man or Thor wereThe Guardians, fair enough, but I feel that people really exaggerate just how unknown characters like Iron Man and Thor and Captain America were before the MCU came along. Okay, they weren’t exactly A-list instantly-recognisable household names like Batman or Superman or Spider-Man, I won’t argue that, but they weren’t the complete obscurities that people make them out to be either. They’d been in constant publication in their own titles for over fifty years, they’d appeared in cartoons and video games and TV shows and stuff, they weren’t completely unheard of.
I didn’t read comic books. You would be amazed how little I knew about these characters. A Norse mythological character, a Black Sabbath song, a James Fenimore Cooper character and Lou Ferrigno.
Maybe Captain America but did people really realize Thor was a Marvel character and not just a figure of Norse Mythology… c’mon now. I barely knew who Iron Man was. I just knew it was from a rock and roll song.
I didn’t know Iron Man was red and gold until I was sitting in the theater.
Thank you! I am so sick of this revisionist history where the general public had heard of damn near everyone in the MCU prior to their films – including Iron Man. Hulk and Spidey would have been the only sure things if you asked 100 people on the street to name them, with a lot of people guessing Captain America due to the costume being a giveaway. And that’s about it.Every single time a new character gets their film, “ooooh, this is a risk”. Guardians Of The Galaxy was 7 years ago now. Just give it up.
Why not? There aren’t many living Avengers around anymore, which is the whole reason why they’re introducing new characters. No reason to think he might not have a major role in a new avengers movie. Who else is going to??
Well, when you consider all of the MCU characters that have had a solo movie but did not appear in an Avengers movie…
I think it largely depends on how good Shang Chi is and, more importantly, whether it’s a huge flop, which, when you combine the Pandemic era causing people not to want to go to theaters, Marvel’s decision not to simultaneously release it on Disney +, the relative obscurity of the character, and the fact that Shang Chi has never really had an ‘essential’ storyline to draw from to even draw in huge numbers of the faithful comic book fan crowd, I think there’s a better than even chance that this won’t just be ‘disappointing’ like Black Widow, but it could be Marvel’s first huge flop.
Oh what a difference 9 days make eh?
Seems more likely he will be the MCU’s introduction to the street level heroes. How long does Netflix still have a stranglehold on DD/Punisher/et al?
…
Well now I’m rooting for them NOT to make him an Avenger.
I’m always hoping those, “Everyone’s thinking it so I’ll say it” comments will go in some weird directions. “I know that what’s on my mind is the same that’s on everyone else’s mind: I do believe that one day we will have the technology to masturbate ourselves, and each other, telepathically.”
Or at the *very* least, telekinetically.
As Crow T. Robot very nearly said: “remote viewing’s free, the rest’ll cost ya.”