As the world celebrated Halloween on Sunday, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu was pleasantly surprised to see several people dressed as his superhero. What warmed his heart most was seeing “little Asian kids dressed up as Shang-Chi” and he thought it was absolutely “precious.” When sharing his thoughts on social media, Liu didn’t know that his sentiments were about to begin a new trend.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was Marvel Studios' first Asian-led superhero film and it started an entire conversation around diversity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the push for diversity had already begun with Black Panther, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings further paved the way for the studio. In his tweet, Liu expressed that perhaps “we should make more of these movies.”
When Halloween was coming around, it was expected that many Marvel fans would opt to dress as the latest superhero to have joined the MCU. What started as an appreciation post by Liu turned into a thread of Shang-Chi fan images. Fans of the movie started sharing their versions of the superhero's costume that they donned for Halloween, and some of them were truly impressive. Liu is known for being quite active on social media, and he slowly started responding to some of the comments and images that showed up on his post.
He appreciated a few people’s costumes and joked with others. Many people shared images of their children dressed up as Shang-Chi, but the majority of the posts were from adults. This goes to show that the character is an inspiration for people of all ages.
People of various cultural backgrounds were also seen wearing Shang-Chi's red and black costume from the film, with many fans stating that Shang-Chi was inspirational for people of all cultures, and not just Asians. One such comment was posted by Twitter user @mattosso83, who asked Liu if it was alright for “non-Asian kids to dress up as Shang-Chi.” Without missing a beat, Liu’s response was, “yes, absolutely yes!”
Apart from the Shang-Chi costume images, many fans of the film also agreed with Liu on how film studios should be producing more of such movies. Diversity was a major point raised by many, and a lot of people wished that they had more representation in cinema when they were growing up. They look forward to seeing a Shang-Chi sequel and perhaps even more diversity in the MCU moving forward.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is showing in theaters and will premiere on Disney Plus on November 12.
Source: Simu Liu/Twitter