'Shang-Chi' Star Simu Liu's Unearthed Reddit Posts Spark Controversy Online

Marvel Studios' latest film, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," proved to be a big hit in the wake of its debut on September 3, 2021. It even grossed the box office record despite the constraints of the pandemic.

It featured Marvel's first Asian superhero, who was played by Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu. Nonetheless, the film's success, combined with its predominantly Asian cast, was seen as an important milestone for Asian-American representation on screen.

However, the actor may have just closed off the minds of potential fans in the US following a recent controversy.

According to reports, the lead actor of the movie was caught up in controversy over his past Reddit posts. While it is unclear which user first tweeted the posts, the moot content spurred some harsh opinions about the star on Twitter.

Some fans of the Marvel star did some fact-checking to make others aware of the context of his posts. Several users were also vocal about how some people and certain media-related pages twisted Simu's controversial opinions.

Simu Liu, who had a Reddit account named /u/nippedinthebud, made some seemingly problematic posts in the past. The subreddit Men's Rights Asians, which Liu was a part of in 2015, was labeled a "racist incel subreddit" by a user who tweeted screenshots of the star's comments.

Although the account was deleted, comments that Liu posted with the username recently surfaced online.

In them, Liu seemingly expressed what some perceived to be generally problematic views on a variety of topics. As an example, a post read, "I am all about gender equality; however, girls are just not as good as boys at sports, and whenever I play volleyball with a girl on the team, I always get frustrated. Sometimes I say things."

Another read, "From a biological standpoint, pedophilia is no different than being gay - a small mutation in the genome that defines our sexual preferences." This was a view Liu held after claiming to have researched the matter for a role.

The posts appeared to have divided social media, with some pointing out that many of the posts have been either deliberately or mistakenly taken out of context. A user explained that claims about Liu's participation in "incel subreddits" were exaggerated. "[/r/aznidentity] was not an incel reddit in 2016. It was just a subreddit for Asians. Not Asian men - Asians period," Twitter user Lewis Parker asserted.

The user went further to show that many of Liu's comments from that subreddit were from the same post about "Kim's Convenience," the Canadian sitcom that provided Liu's breakout role.

The rising Canadian actor, who is most famous for his role as the son in the CBC-TV sitcom "Kim's Convenience," began his career in acting after he jettisoned a corporate path he had been following without much gumption.

After he relocated to Canada, his parents would have liked him to become a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer, basically, anything professionally minded. But accounting seemed like a better option.

Liu attended the University of Toronto Schools, a private secondary school affiliated with the university. He then received an honors business administration (HBA) degree from the University of Western Ontario's Ivey Business School. The degree allowed undergraduates to enter the business stream midway through their undergraduate studies.

However, he found himself on a path that wasn't for him. His marks were "middle/middle-bottom, so my option was basically an accounting," he said. This led to him working for giant Deloitte in downtown Toronto, but Liu still felt listless.

Then, a new calling arose, which was wrapped up in a deep interest in film and television. "I was raised as an only child. My parents worked a lot. I was basically raised on TV and in movies. They would drop me off at a movie theatre on a Saturday morning and say, 'Here's $20, knock yourself out,'" he said. "And so I would often watch four or five movies every weekend. I had always been curious and enamored with that whole industry."

The star has not directly responded to the growing conversation about his social media activity, but, after being tagged into a thread, he did refer to a tweet sent out in 2019. He captioned it, "Oh, cool, this is here."

In the tweet, he explained that he was only an advocate for positivity. Liu later stated, "If you dig back far enough, I'm sure you'll find a more immature version of me who gave in to anger and hate. It doesn't make me a hypocrite; it makes me a human being. Mentalities evolve. We shift, and we grow. And I want us all to grow the right way."

It is worth noting that this was not originally written in response to any particular issue. As of the time of this publication, Liu has not responded in any other form.

Although Simu Liu might be the latest Marvel star to be caught in controversy, he's far from being the only MCU actor to receive backlashes online.

American Actress Letitia Wright was embroiled in controversy after she shared a video that made unsubstantiated claims about the authenticity and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. The "Black Panther" star posted a link to a video that said people who took the vaccines would have to "hope it doesn't make extra limbs grow."

Wright's initial post featured a link to the video alongside the prayer hands emoji. This was retweeted more than 3,000 times.

She then participated in heated spats with users who accused her of spreading misinformation.

"It is not my intention to make anyone upset, nor am I saying don't take it," she wrote. "I'm just concerned about what's in it, that's all. Isn't that fair to question?"