Simu Liu is using his latest career moves to defend superhero storytelling, even as criticism of the genre keeps circulating. In a new column for Variety tied to his Netflix animated film In Your Dreams, the Shang-Chi actor pushes back on what he describes as people “sh—ing” on superhero movies because it has become fashionable, while stressing that he still believes in what those films represent.
Promoting In Your Dreams, Liu highlights the practical appeal of animation work, joking that he has turned up to recording sessions in pajamas and flip-flops because only the vocal performance matters. The film follows two siblings who enter a dream world to seek help from the Sandman as they worry about their parents’ relationship, with Liu voicing their musician father opposite Cristin Milioti. He says he did not initially realize he would be singing an original song, but calls performing it with Milioti a highlight.
Liu’s column also widens out to the culture around blockbuster cinema. He acknowledges that there are “valid critiques” of how big movies are produced and how budgets are handled, but argues that dismissing superhero projects wholesale ignores the connection they can create with audiences. His recent comments arrive as he returns to Marvel’s front line in Avengers: Doomsday, the next ensemble movie in the franchise.
On that film, Liu has described going to work as feeling “like a dream,” with the cast including Florence Pugh, Tom Hiddleston, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. In a separate interview he called Avengers: Doomsday a “love letter to the entire genre of superhero movies” and said he grew up watching many of his current co-stars. The movie is scheduled for release on December 18, 2026, while a standalone Shang-Chi sequel remains in development.
Liu’s stance builds on a debate he entered in 2022, when he publicly responded to critical remarks about Marvel from directors Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, arguing that their view of stardom would have excluded him and praising Marvel’s efforts on-screen diversity, even as he acknowledged that no studio is perfect. Framing his “perfect world” as one without social media dogpiles or performative outrage, he now appears keen to defend superhero films while also encouraging a less hostile conversation around them.
