SDCC 2024: Jackpot! Director Paul Feig Talks Shang-Chi Reunion of Awkwafina and Simu Liu

Jackpot! brings Simu Liu and Awkwafina back together again after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rngs. Director Paul Feig sat down with comic book to share the story of how this wild crossover ended up happening. It turns out that Awkwafina was already associated with the project before the Marvel star decided to climb aboard. From there, the opportunity was just one that Feig couldn’t really pass up. He confessed to be a fan of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. So, the possibility of reuniting Simu and Awkwafina ended up being a bit of serendipity. Marvel fans have been waiting for the announcement of a follow-up for a while now. Maybe Jackpot! can scratch that itch in the meantime. Take a look at the story up above.

“Oh yeah, I mean, I love that movie. It’s so great,” Feig began. “They’re so funny, but it was not planned at all. I mean, Nora was already kind of attached to the script when it was sent to me. Nora’s a friend of mine, and we’ve been trying to figure out something to do together. But, then we were kinda wondering who was gonna play the villain and we weren’t sure. And then, Simu’s team called us up and said, ‘He’d be interested in doing this.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ and I didn’t really think about it until we cast him. I was like, “Oh s***! That’s right, they were in another movie together!‘” 

Where Is Shang-Chi?

With Avengers: Doomsday on the docket and a hopeful Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings sequel in development, fans are hoping to see Simu Liu again soon. Before he hosted the People’s Choice Awards this year, the Shang-Chi actor spoke to ComicBook on the red carpet for Arthur the King. When asked about coming back to the MCU for both projects, Liu said there are plans in the works. He couldn’t give us specifics back then. (It’s unclear if the Marvel actor knew about Downey’s place in the sequel or not yet…) So, something is brewing and answers are coming.

“Oh man, I don’t know to be honest,” Liu told us a few months ago. “I mean, those things are so above my pay grade. I just wanna continue to be a fan of it. You know, when I get a call of like, ‘Hey, this is what your in and this is where you’re going to show up. And, this is when you’re going to be need to be blacked out for.’ That’s kind of generally what tends to happen. But, you know Destin is such a special filmmaker and we’re very happy to have him on the sequel. So, he’ll be working on that and we’re really excited to see what he comes up with. I think he’s going to do a brilliant job.” 

When do you think we’ll see this duo together again in the MCU? Let us know in the comments down below!