Shang-Chi Star Simu Liu Calls Out Casting Notice

Even though it will be a while before we see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Marvel [...]

By Jamie Jirak

Even though it will be a while before we see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Marvel movie's lead is already becoming one of our favorite actors in the franchise. Simu Liu has a great presence on social media. Between supporting other Marvel cast members and cracking jokes, he's definitely a source of joy. Liu is also not afraid to call people out, especially for racist behavior. In fact, the actor took to Twitter this week to call out a casting notice looking for Chinese or Korean people whose eyes are "although almond-shaped, not too down turned eyes, no monolid."

"Dear Paladino Casting, F**k you. Signed, A Proudly-Monolidded Asian," Liu wrote. He also added in the comments, "I've never heard Asians described as 'pinky' in my entire life." You can see the post and read the full casting call below:

Many people expressed their outrage over the notice in the comments. "This has enraged me tysm," Westworld's Shannon Woodward wrote. "Monolids FOREVER," comedian Karen Chee added. "Wow. Holy sh*t. This is real?!," The Expanse writers James S. A. Corey added. "What the actual f*ck?????," musician K.D. Lang replied. "@PaladinoCasting you owe the Asian American community an apology," actor Leonard Wu added. You can read more replies here.

While filming for Shang-Chi was suspended, Liu remained in Australia and recently spoke about the pressure of signing on for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"To take a quote from Stan Lee, the legend himself, 'With great power there must also come great responsibility'," Liu explained. "But I think the reason I have the platform I do is because I've leaned into my Asianness. If you are going to ask an entire population to support you, to rally behind you and give you a platform, I won't shy away from that responsi­bility. I feel like we've been shying away from it as people for too long, especially the children of immigrants who are taught to keep their heads down. We have reached the limit of that philosophy."

The delay of Black Widow, The Eternals, and Shang-Chi does not seem to impact the Marvel films scheduled for 2022 and beyond. The third Spider-Man movie is a Sony film, so if it is going to delay beyond its already-moved-to December 2021 date, such news would have to come from Sony rather than Disney and Marvel Studios. Disney+ recently pushed The Falcon and The Winter Soldier to 2021 but promised WandaVision would be arriving on the streaming service in 2020. 2020 now officially marks the first year since 2009 that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will have not released a new movie.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is currently scheduled to hit theaters on July 9, 2021.

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