UPDATED 7/29/19 at 5:45 p.m. ET: During a conversation with ET Canada, Simu Liu gave insight on the casting process.
"I waited two days and I had gone online and watched videos of all these other Marvel stars and how they got cast and I think I got it in my mind that Kevin [Feige] likes to call them personally so I thought if my manager calls, it might be bad news but if I get a call from an unknown number, it might be good news," Liu said.
Watch the full interview below:
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During San Diego's Comic-Con, Marvel revealed the projects that will be part of its highly anticipated Phase 4. At Saturday's Hall H panel, it was announced that the studio will be releasing the origin story for Shang-Chi, titled Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The kung-fu master will be played by Toronto's Simu Liu, who will become Marvel's first Asian superhero. While most castings of this magnitude require a lot of deliberation, Liu's casting didn't take much time at all.
According to the CBC, Liu learned that he would be starring as Shang-Chi just two days before Marvel announced that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings would hit theaters in 2021. After the news was announced, Liu revealed that he had screen tested for the role less than a week before he was hired.
"I feel like I was kind of this social experiment," Liu told the crowd. "Let's just take this guy, an ordinary guy, living in Toronto. Let's tell him he's going to be in the next Marvel movie and give him four days to prep for it."
Although the decision was swift, Liu has been lobbying to play Shang-Chi for a while. After Marvel's formal 2018 announcement that the film would eventually be made, Liu tweeted at Marvel in an effort to get the studio's attention. "OK @Marvel are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi," he wrote at the time.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set to premiere on Feb 12, 2021. The movie will also star Tony Leung as Mandarin and Awkwafina.
