The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, Liu talked candidly about the lack of opportunities he’s received as an Asian actor in Hollywood and his surprise that his MCU debut didn’t open more doors.<\/p>\nAsked what he wishes he knew before Shang-Chi, Liu replied, “That it\u2019s a marathon and that and success is defined by longevity more than just the bigness of a single moment. And then with the caveat that it\u2019s gonna be a lot harder for you than if you were white. Maybe that\u2019s a controversial thing to say or a hot take. But I\u2019ve watched a lot of actors\u2019 careers over the past few years since I\u2019ve had my moments.”<\/p>\n
“Seeing firsthand just why a system is made and why a system helps a certain type of actor, that, once they get their moment, it becomes infinitely easier for them to get their next and then their next,” he continued.\u00a0“That has not been the case for me at all. I still very much feel like I have an uphill battle every single day. The things that come across my desk, I don\u2019t know if this is the best stuff for me. I wish it were better.”<\/p>\n
Making it clear that he’s grateful for the opportunities he’s had, Liu explained\u00a0that he’s primarily been offered smaller projects, supporting characters, and villains, but very rarely a leading man role.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Once Shang-Chi came out and had the moment that it did, I was a little surprised by how few No. 1 roles came across my desk,” he shared.\u00a0“Whereas, if it had happened to somebody else, a different actor who looked differently, I think those offers would\u2019ve come a lot quicker and more abundantly.”<\/p>\n
Liu isn’t pulling a Zachary Levi here by bemoaning his star power and remains humble while trying to shine a spotlight on a bigger issue with the lack of representation in the industry. “I don\u2019t mean to say that I was the reason why [Shang-Chi] succeeded,” the actor acknowledged.\u00a0“Yes, it was a Marvel movie, but it was a completely unknown hero within that universe and had very little to do with the other characters. It\u2019s a self-contained origin story.”<\/p>\n
“And to have it come out at a time, during COVID, when people weren\u2019t even allowed to sit in adjacent seats in a movie theater, and to still, you know, do what it did. And, again, it\u2019s something that I had a small amount to do with. But I think, in a world where nothing is a surefire bet, [someone] would at least be like, ‘Oh, let\u2019s put this guy in something else. Let\u2019s, let\u2019s see what he\u2019s got.'”<\/p>\n
“And, it\u2019s not that I haven\u2019t worked. I\u2019m grateful for a lot of the projects that I\u2019ve done. But, to be clear, The Copenhagen Test is my first lead role since Shang-Chi,” Liu\u00a0noted. “I just remember there was so much uncertainty around that release. Our industry is so obsessed with tracking and estimates, and we were getting such low estimates. [Bob] Chapek was going on investor calls and being like, ‘It\u2019s an experiment.'”<\/p>\n
As for where things stand now between Liu and\u00a0Marvel Studios, we know he’ll return in Avengers: Doomsday. However,\u00a0it appears he’s accepted that\u00a0Shang-Chi isn’t necessarily a priority in the MCU, especially as a sequel announcement still doesn’t look to be on the horizon.<\/p>\n
“They do call, I have no idea when they\u2019re gonna call, and then we work it out. I loved what we did,” he said four years after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ release. “People remind me of it every single day. When things succeed in this industry, no matter who\u2019s the lead, I generally like to think that Hollywood is smart enough to do more of that…”<\/p>\n
It’s widely believed that Marvel Studios was planning to announce a sequel titled Shang-Chi and the Wreckage of Time. However, that fell by the wayside when filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton boarded Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and, more recently, Spider-Man: Brand New Day.<\/p>\n
Would you like to see more Shang-Chi in the MCU? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simu Liu was best known for his role in Kim’s Convenience before being cast as the title character…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206,179322,84500],"class_list":["post-364243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-shang-chi-and-the-legend-of-the-ten-ring","tag-simu-liu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}