Today’s been an exciting day for Simu Liu. Not only is it the star’s birthday, but Marvel decided to drop the first trailer for his big debut movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as a special surprise for him and his fans. There’s a lot of positive buzz surrounding the actor right now, then, as folks are loving this fresh look at his first MCU film. However, on the flip side, a resurfaced old tweet of Liu’s has got him in trouble online, causing a bit of a Twitter war between Marvel lovers and… Nicky Minaj fans.
Way, way back in November 2012, Liu made a jab at the pop star, comparing her singing to “a homeless man yell[ing] at a pigeon.” It’s pretty mean-spirited and hasn’t aged all that well, but it’s far from the worst tweet that’s been dredged up from a celebrity’s past. However, it’s done the job of angering Minaj’s loyal followers, who’ve flooded the replies to Liu’s ancient post with mean-spirted messages of their own.
“I thought I was at a nicki minaj concert for 20 minutes before I realized I was just watching a homeless man yell at a pigeon….” read the now-deleted message.
We won’t be embedding any of the harsh comments here, but suffice it to say, many people are attempting to cancel Liu for his old joke, with some claiming they’ll be avoiding Shang-Chi after discovering it. This has led to an outpouring of anger on the opposite end, though, from MCU fans who are defending him against this backlash, pointing out how ridiculous it is for people to be getting annoyed over it. Especially on the guy’s birthday.
Nicki Minaj stans are really trying to cancel Simu Liu on his birthday cause of a decade old tweet making fun of Nicki Minajs music 😐😑😐
— Carter 🦍 (@H11mGuy) April 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/stormpilot_m/status/1384190739282681864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1384190739282681864%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fepicstream.com%2Fnews%2FBriConstantino%2FPeople-are-Trying-to-Cancel-Shang-Chi-Star-Simu-Liu-After-an-Old-Nicki-Minaj-Joke-Resurfaces
If you try to cancel Simu Liu on his birthday just because of a tweet he made in his early 20s almost 10 years ago because he didn't like someone's music, you're pathetic.
— kothuboy21 (@kothuboy21) April 19, 2021
This is basically the situation on Twitter right now.
https://twitter.com/mendiondbackup/status/1384217318864027652
Simu Liu is a very active social media user, and is pretty open with his thoughts and opinions, and unfortunately his newfound fame and status is just going to encourage criticism like this. But, as things stand, the goodwill fans have towards the actor for being the very first Asian superhero in the MCU is outweighing the bad.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set to debut this September 3rd.