Later this week, Marvel Studios will take a detour into the realm of alternate possibilities once the animated Disney+ series What If… starts to stream. On the movie side of the business, however, Simu Liu’s standalone origin story Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be the next feature-length story to hit theaters. And as a way to celebrate the occasion, while also commenting on the still insane way he caught Marvel’s eye for this role, Liu dropped this common Twitter meme on social, easily winning the meme game for the week.
The “How it started / How it’s going” bit on Twitter has been around for a while, but it’s the ultimate Marvel flex that Simu Liu gets to remind everyone of the ridiculous fact that he basically pitched himself to the studio on social, then survived the Hunger Games gauntlet of casting to eventually land the coveted role of Shang-Chi. The image on the right in the above post is the latest character poster for the hero that Liu is going to bring to the screen next month. And as we get closer to the film’s release, it seems like we are finding out more about how important the rings that are part of Shang-Chi’s family are going to be.
They play a prominent role in the longer Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings featurette that dropped by Marvel Studios recently. Check this one out of you haven’t yet:
But the insane reality that Simu Liu is addressing comes from the Tweet on the left. As you can tell from the time stamp, the actor reached out to Marvel Studios back in 2018 and basically said, “Yo. Let’s talk.” And they listened. This would be like a guitarist Tweeting at Sir Paul McCartney, “Hey Paul, Beatles reunion tour?” And then McCartney calls that person up and is like, “Let’s do it. You’re George now.”
I pray that Simu Liu has that Tweet framed somewhere in his home. It’s the Tweet that changed his life, no matter if the movie is good or bad. Shang-Chi is about to become a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Liu guaranteed his spot on the big wall with his gutsy ask. You have to love it.
The Ten Rings were first mentioned in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, and they were a bait-and-switch plot twist in Iron Man 3. Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings appears to explore the history of this criminal organization, while also introducing the young man who renounces his deep ties to the leader of the group… who happens to be his father (Tony Leung).
The movie will take the already sprawling MCU to new corners, and bring about a hero who has been a fixture in the comics for decades, but can open the door to new storytelling on screen. Look for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings when it opens exclusively in theaters beginning on September 3.
