Simu Liu is playing the underdog card for one of the biggest films ever made.
The actor took to X to share the teaser poster for Avengers: Doomsday, framing the Marvel Cinematic Universe juggernaut as a scrappy passion project in need of word-of-mouth buzz.
"Please help me support this little indie feature im a part of! it secured a theatrical release in december and we all worked really hard on it. please help us spread the word!!" Liu wrote on Sunday (Aug. 16).
The film hitting theaters on Dec. 18 is, by virtually every measure, the opposite of a grassroots production. Liu returns as Shang-Chi, stepping into the broader Avengers lineup for the first time at this scale.
At San Diego Comic-Con this year, Liu described the version of the character audiences will see as "a lot more confident and a more self-assured version of who he was when we last saw him." A previous trailer for the film puts Shang-Chi in a fight sequence opposite Channing Tatum's Gambit, a matchup Liu seems enthusiastic about.
The cast assembled for the 39th MCU installment is sprawling: Robert Downey Jr. returns as Victor von Doom, Pedro Pascal plays Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby is Sue Storm, and Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach round out the Fantastic Four as Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen reprise Professor X and Magneto alongside a roster that includes Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Florence Pugh, Channing Tatum, and more.
Doomsday opens Dec. 18, when it will go head-to-head at the box office with Timothée Chalamet's Dune: Part Three.
