The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings scored the second highest-grossing opening weekend of the pandemic era with $71 million, the third-biggest global debut thanks to a $140 million haul, and it almost tripled the existing Labor Day benchmark with a bow in excess of $83 million across the four-day holiday.
By any metrics that’s an unqualified success, and you’d imagine that leading man Simu Liu has to be pinching himself right now. After all, the blockbuster comic book adaptation is just his third feature film credit ever, and one of those was as an extra in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. To put his rapid rise into perspective, seven years ago he was modeling for stock photos and being paid $100 a time for the privilege.
It was inevitable that his past career would resurface right around the time Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings hit theaters, and as you can see below, it didn’t take long at all for the images to go viral on social media once again.
It’s an incredible rise for the 32 year-old, who now finds himself as the star of a mega budget superhero epic hailing from the most successful franchise in the history of cinema, with Marvel Studios even releasing a promo spot officially confirming him as the latest member of the Avengers.
Based on the regularity with which the stock photos have gone viral since he was first cast, though, there’s no chance that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will ever find Liu forgetting where he came from.