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Simu Liu admits Marvel role is 'momentous'

Simu Liu credit:Bang Showbiz
Simu Liu credit:Bang Showbiz

Simu Liu thinks being Marvel's first Asian lead is "very, very momentous".

The 32-year-old actor plays the titular character in 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' and he feels very proud to have become the first actor of Asian descent to lead a Marvel Studios film.

Simu - who was born in China, but emigrated to Canada at the age of five - said: "It is such an incredible moment. Very, very momentous. You know, I never had a superhero to look up to in that way growing up..."

Simu stars in the movie alongside the likes of Awkwafina, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu and Benedict Wong, and he admits that some of the cast members are now among his "closest friends".

He told 'Entertainment Tonight': "I can honestly say - and this is not, like, a bit or a soundbite - I came out of this with six or seven of the people that I call my closest friends today. It was really just so many people going through the same thing and understanding the importance of this movie and what it will mean to so many people."

Despite his sense of pride, Simu's parents didn't initially grasp the enormity of the achievement.

He explained: "A lot of immigrant parents, they don't watch the same channels as you and I do - they don't watch 'Entertainment Tonight' all the time - but what they do watch is a lot of news channels from home and they read a lot of newspapers from home.

"It wasn't until the Chinese-language poster came out that they finally were like, 'Oh my god!' Like, it became real to them! But I think that a lot of folks who grew up in similar households will know what I'm talking about."