Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings star Simu Liu is not just known for his role as the Marvel hero, but is in the midst of an up and coming career on the path to becoming a household name. Aside from Shang-Chi, the actor played a significant role in the Barbie movie, starred in the sitcom Kim’s Convenience that ran until 2021, and is also starring in the new Peacock series The Copenhagen Test. He is then set to star in the upcoming film Seven Wonders and has a production credit on the upcoming film Sleeping Dogs.
Shifting back to Marvel, he will then be returning to his career defining role with the sequel to his first solo film (rumored to be titled Shang-Chi and the Wreckage of Time) and the major massive ensemble coming to theaters in 2026, Avengers: Doomsday. It is also assumed he will be returning in some capacity in the sequel to Doomsday, Avengers: Secret Wars. Doomsday will be bringing back a majority of the MCU, new and old, while absorbing in the Fox X-Men characters in an epic showdown between a massively large group of heroes and the titular villain of the movie, Dr. Doom. Doom will famously be played by Iron Man actor Robert Downy Jr., and in a recent interview with Collier, Liu described the first time he ever met Downy Jr. and what it was like to meet one of the most well known actors of all time.
The actors first met at San-Diego Comic-Con 2024 when it was first revealed that Downy Jr. would be coming back into the MCU as the villain Doom. Liu recalls the actor being kind and taking the time to praise his work as a fan, “This was a very momentous meeting where we met, and then we were like, ‘We’re about to work together. That’s fantastic.’ I got to say how much his work has meant to me, and shared some really kind words, and he was really sweet.” I can only imagine how nerve racking it would be to go from doing a cable TV sitcom for five years to all of a sudden transitioning to a position where you get to meet and work alongside Robert Downy Jr. tier actors. Later in the interview, he specifically talks about having to differentiate between being a fan himself and being a coworker.
Liu then takes a small tangent from the expected and begins to describe what he referred to as ‘Downey Land’, which is the apparent nickname for the convoy of trailers at the comic-con base camp, “It’s all this beautiful Andy Warhol-esque artwork, except all the characters are Downey. He’s so self-aware. So, he greeted me, and then I didn’t realize that Downey Land has its own chefs, but I had brought my set lunch, and he was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no. We don’t do that here.'” According to the actor, it was a common sight to see actors from the cinematic universe, some in full costume, some in half costume, some in regular clothing, all funneling in and out of Downey Land while he was there and reflected on the experience, “Those are priceless, irreplaceable memories that I’ll have for the rest of my life.”
Mentioned earlier, one of the challenges the actor faced was being able to differentiate himself between a fan and a bonafide co-worker. It would be hard for anyone, even someone with legitimate acting credits on the resume like Liu, to not completely fan-boy out when meeting the man who played Tony Stark for ten years and helped launch the vessel that was partly responsible for his first major role. According to the actor, “… For me, it was very imperative that I put that fan side away. I compartmentalized that side of me because I was like, ‘I have a job to do. I have a job to do, and the worst thing that I can do right now is be a fan. I’m a coworker.’ As ridiculous as that sounds, or as ridiculous as it sounded to me at the time, I was like, ‘No. I have to treat these people as my equals, even though I’m literally like a little boy right now.'”
Even celebrities can be star struck, and Liu sounds like he was quite aware of that fact while meeting Downy Jr. Putting aside his own anxiety in meeting such a huge name is something the actor needed to do at the time, and while he may have not been a huge star himself at the time of the first meeting the new few years of upcoming film and television credits for Liu should help him feel a little more confident upon his next meeting with the man behind the (now) Doom mask.
Fans have gotten some of their anticipation for the next Avengers chapter rewarded with the first two of four (maybe five in recent reports of a fifth trailer runtime are accurate) teaser trailers released for next year’s Doomsday. For now, we do not have much knowledge as to the extent of how Shang-Chi will be featured in the film, but his own film ended with a meeting between himself and some of the remaining Avengers pertaining to the Ten Rings, which may or may not play a role in Doom at all. It seems more likely that the Ten Rings were going to play more into the larger Multiverse saga when Kang the Conqueror was still anticipated to be the overarching big bad at the time, but for now only time will tell. It will be also interesting to see how Doomsday ends, as if it follows the comics the Earth will temporarily turn into Battleworld at the end of the film, and it will be interesting to see if and how Shang-Chi survives the film and makes it into the sequel, Secret Wars.
Are you excited to see Shang-Chi return in Avengers: Doomsday next year? Let us know down in the comments!
Source: Collider
