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Five long years after his character debuted in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Simu Liu's titular martial arts superhero will finally return to the bigscreen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Avengers: Doomsday, where he and a host of old and new Marvel characters will be teaming up against Victor von Doom. At New York Comic Con 2025, we got the opportunity to ask Liu how he felt about getting the call to be in the MCU's next tentpole film, and his answer had us (and the audience) cheering.

Even though, to be clear, he meant it as a joke.

OK, let's back up a second. Liu was appearing alongside costar, best pal, and onscreen sibling Meng'er Zhang - who plays Xu Xialing in the Shang-Chi movie - at an NYCC '25 panel hosted by Popverse's own staff writer, Grant DeArmitt (me. That's me). Eager to know more about Liu's role in Doomsday but knowing we couldn't get into spoiler territory, we decided to avoid plot questions altogether and simply ask what was on Liu's mind when he found out Shang-Chi would be in the film.

“It’s about goddamn time,” said Liu. And then, quite immediately, even as the crowd went nuts, "I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Oh, shit. I’m in trouble now. Let the record show that I was just kidding."

"What an incredible call to get," Liu continued when the noise died down, "I experienced kind of many waves of excitement. First getting that call, and then learning who else was going to be there. You know - some of whom I had had the pleasure of meeting, and some of whom I had not. But each and every one of them was just iconic, iconic people. This is public now but - Sir Ian McKellen; Sir Patrick Stewart; people who I grew up watching and idolizing. And then having gotten to - "

Realizing that he was straying into some possible spoiler territory (shoutout to Alan Cumming), and already presumably in trouble, Liu took a beat. The rest of his answer that followed was carefully, carefully worded.

"Maybe having gotten to do scenes with them at some point," Liu carried on, "That may or may not have been even better... Would be something that maybe I would say if I was in the movie."

There you go, Simu. Dig yourself outta that hole.

"It was an experience I can't even describe," Liu said, "Going to work every single day was this mix of turning on your TV on a Saturday morning, because every single person I was working with - that I was fortunate enough to consider a colleague - was somebody that I had literally grown up watching. And then also [there was] just the fun of being in a playground where all of those people were somehow wearing spandex. And were all there to make make believe. It was an incredible, incredible time." 

"I think it'll be worth the cost of admission," Liu began wrapping up, "Like, every page of this script - that may or may not have been finished - that I was reading I was like, 'Oh, yeah.' I would read a scene and I would be like, 'I would pay $20 to see that scene. I'd pay $20 to see those people fight. And those two people make out.' I’m kidding.”

As the crowd once again reacted with laughter and applause, Liu concluded: “I’m going to stop talking now.” And we think was a pretty wise move.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is streaming now on Disney+. Avengers: Doomsday makes out - er, makes its way into theaters December 18, 2026.

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters