Simu Liu is still cringing over the outfit he wore when meeting his Avengers: Doomsday costar Robert Downey Jr. for the very first time.
While visiting The Tonight Show on Monday, the Shang-Chi actor took a moment to clarify why he was sporting a pair of short shorts and flip flops in a photo of the cast posted in May.
“Can we just talk about my wardrobe for a second? Because it looks like I’m really, really underdressed,” Liu said as host Jimmy Fallon held up the photograph. “And I just want to say, this was my first time meeting Downey, by the way. So I was as embarrassed as I am right now, showing it to you.”
Robert Downey, Jr/Instagram
The image (above) sees Liu and Downey posed alongside their Doomsday costars Chris Hemsworth (Thor Odinson), Channing Tatum (Gambit), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Winston Duke (M’Baku), and Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America).
Liu explained on the late-night program that he had a very reasonable explanation for his casual ensemble.
“I just want to preface by saying I was the only one of these people that had to work that day,” the star said. “And so I showed up to work. I’m ready to shoot. I wasn’t trying to look pretty.”
However, Liu likely wished that he had a back-up outfit when he got a text notifying him that Downey, who helmed the MCU as Tony Stark/Iron Man for over a decade, wanted to meet him.
“I got a text in the middle of the day that was like, ‘Oh, Downey wants to say hi to you after work,’” Liu recalled. “And I was like, ‘No! I’m in short shorts and flip flops!’ And they’re like, ‘No, no. Downey wants everyone to come in and say hi.’”
The look was, naturally, the first thing Downey noticed. “I show up and literally the first thing that he said was, he was like, ‘Oh, look at you! Well, that’s a choice,’” Liu said. “I was like, ‘God!’”
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The 36-year-old is set to reprise his role as Shang-Chi in Doomsday. The film also marks Downey’s return to the MCU — this time as the villainous Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom.
When asked what it felt like to get the call to join the Avengers, Liu bluntly responded, “It’s about f—ing time, man! Jesus, it’s about f—ing time!”
He went on to explain just how special it was to be part of the Doomsday cast having watched Endgame in theaters as a fan years earlier.
“I was just watching that moment and the Mjolnir and I was cheering along with everybody else and I had no idea — I truly had no idea — that like less than three months later I would be part of it,” he said. “And so getting that call to be in this movie, I mean, it’s every dream come true that I’ve ever had.”
In addition to the aforementioned stars, Doomsday widens out its superhero roster with performances by Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier), Letitia Wright (Shuri/Black Panther), Tenoch Huerta Mejia (Namor the Submariner), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Kelsey Grammer (Hank McCoy/Beast), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier/Professor X), Ian McKellen (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), and more.
Longtime Marvel directors Joe and Anthony Russo are also set to return for Doomsday as well as its follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars.
Doomsday comes out Dec. 18, 2026, with Secret Wars following suit on Dec. 17, 2027. Watch Liu talk about meeting Downey in the clip above.