Shang-Chi Star Simu Liu Promises Exciting Origin Story

Marvel Studios’ next theatrical release, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is coming next month and will be the first MCU movie in a long while to feature an all-new cast of characters. The film is being led by Simu Liu, who is best known for his role as Jung Kim on the sitcom Kim’s Convenience. Not only will this mark Liu’s first time in the MCU, but it’s the first time movie fans will get to know the character of Shang-Chi. During a recent chat with Total Film, Liu teased the movie will be a top-notch origin story.

“It’s a beautiful and exciting new origin story for this character that a lot of the world hasn’t heard of before,” Liu shared. “And it means that kids growing up today will have what I didn’t, which are characters that are aspirational, that also reflect their lived experience.”

During the interview, Liu also opened up about getting that initial call from Kevin Feige about being cast as the movie’s lead.

“I reacted by crying hysterically into my pillow,” Liu shared. “It’s certainly quite a bit of pressure, I have to say. I loved superhero movies growing up. I loved Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, but I was always keenly aware that people who looked like me could not look like that.”

In addition to Liu, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will also feature Tony Leung as Wenwu, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. The movie was helmed by Destin Daniel Cretton and will be released with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window.

“Shang-Chi is a movie that ended up on a ‘Wouldn’t It Be Great’ list where ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could do this as a movie,’ probably twenty years ago,” Feige recently told Rotten Tomatoes. “It’s a great story of a young man that realizes his father is essentially one of the world’s greatest supervillains and one of the world’s greatest criminals. How do you process that? And how do you deal with that as a child? How do you evolve beyond that?”

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is currently scheduled to premiere in theaters on September 3rd. The rest of Marvel’s 2021 line-up includes What If…, which releases new episodes on Disney+ on Wednesdays, Eternals in theatres on November 5th, Hawkeye on Disney+ on November 24th, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres on December 17th.