Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Hidden Panel: Simu Liu Teases “Avengers: Doomsday” and Reminisces With Meng’er Zhang at NYCC

NYCC turned into a family reunion as Simu Liu and Meng’er Zhang took the stage for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Hidden Panel." Liu dangled crowd-pleasing Avengers: Doomsday morsels while both stars shared memories of making Legend of the Ten Rings, including their instant chemistry in Sydney, stunt-training glow-ups, Ben Kingsley’s concise acting wisdom, and a finale shoot where the dragon was fake but the wind, water, and shivering were very, very real.

Asked what it was like to get the Avengers: Doomsday call, Liu said the first wave was pure exhilaration, followed by the thrill of learning who else would be there. Among the talent that had him starstruck were Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. “I experienced many waves of excitement," Liu shared. “Having maybe gotten the opportunity to do scenes with them at some point, that may or may not have been even better. [That] would be something that I maybe would say if I was in the movie."

He described going to work as “this mix of turning on your TV on a Saturday morning" and playing in a sprawling superhero sandbox. He even joked that reading pages of the script (which “may or may not have been finished") had him thinking, I’d pay $20 just to see that scene. Then, laughing at himself before he said too much, shutting down the conversation. “I’m going to stop talking now."

But Simu Liu’s upcoming appearance in Doomsday wouldn’t have happened without 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which was the main focus of the panel. Liu recalled arriving in Sydney in October 2019 still without a Xialing: “Destin [Daniel Cretton] says, ‘We’re flying someone in. Can you screen test with her?’" After Zhang’s read, and a nerves-on-display stunt assessment, “we had that sibling chemistry right away." He teased that her first punches looked like a total novice’s, but marveled at how she transformed: “By the shoot, you were an incredible fighter." Zhang, who’d been flown in under NDA without even being told it was Marvel, remembered Liu wandering in from stunt training “in slippers," instantly putting her at ease.

A theater actress in China, Zhang said she leaned on Ben Kingsley to bridge stage and screen technique. His concise metaphor stuck: “Stage acting is like a landscape artist; acting on camera is like a portrait artist."

Both stars laughed about the final weeks on the animatronic dragon rig: “They’d douse us with a pail of not-particularly-warm water, hit the wind, and we’d just hang on for dear life," Liu said. “Green screen requires imagination — this didn’t. The dragon was fake, but the suffering was real."

Recording Marvel’s What If…? was “lovely and disjointed," Liu said — solo sessions mean you rarely perform with the co-stars you’re “in" the scene with. Zhang teased Liu about Shang Chi’s reaction to her character’s death in the episode, quickly moving on. But Simu swore that wasn’t his memory of the session. “I had tears going! No one was filming, but I had tears."

The panel also revisited their off-set friendship, forged during the long shoot in Sydney. Both only children, they said working on Shang-Chi gave them the sibling dynamic they’d never had. Liu recalled insisting on speaking to Zhang in Mandarin to make her feel comfortable, while Zhang remembered him looking out for her at cast dinners — even making sure she always had food on her plate. When production shut down during the pandemic, Liu braved the empty streets to find her a birthday gift, finally presenting a set of pens that still had a security tag attached. “It came with the sensor on it," she laughed, joking about how he may have stolen the gift (he swears he paid for it).

In a more reflective moment, Liu said he’s been chasing the sense of belonging they built on Ten Rings ever since. “I don’t think I realized how special it was until it was over," he admitted. “Every set I go to now, I hope to recapture even five percent of that magic." Zhang agreed, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “We hung out every weekend — played VR games, watched movies, just like a real family," she said. “I really miss that."

Shang Chi will return in Avengers: Doomsday.