Shang-Chi’s Dallas Liu Open to Be Recast as an X-Men Character in the MCU

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Dallas Liu says his role as Prince Zuko on Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender made him interested in playing X-Men’s Pyro over Iceman in a future MCU reboot.

“Iceman is a good pick just because I felt like nobody wants to talk about him. But now I would have to say I’m fully Pyro. He’s so bad. So bad,” Liu said in an interview with Nerdist. “I think it’s a lot easier to imagine fire in a fight scene versus ice. You don’t know exactly the shape of it, how fast it’s moving. So yeah, I’m fully just Team Fire in general. The color red, it’s good.”

Liu originated the small role of Ruihua, the brother of Katy Chen (Awkwafina) in 2021’s Shang-Chi. At the time of the movie’s release, Liu expressed his desire to be recast as Iceman in a Marvel Studios-produced X-Men reboot. Despite his Avatar character’s fire-controlling powers inspiring him to play Pyro instead, Liu will have to wait in line as Fox’s original X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand actor Aaron Stanford is set to reprise the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants member in the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine.

X-Men’s growing presence in the MCU

Ever since the X-Men movie license was acquired by Disney in 2019, Marvel has taken baby steps in bringing the mutants into the MCU. From Evan Peters‘ imposter Quicksilver in 2021’s WandaVision to Monica Rambeau’s awakening inside the Xavier School in the mid-credits sequence of 2023’s The Marvels, the Fox-era of X-Men movies have increasingly made their presence known in the Multiverse Saga. As Deadpool & Wolverine’s multiverse premise sees the return of Hugh Jackman as Logan as well as Stanford’s Pyro, other Fox-era X-Men actors, rumored to cameo include Dafne Keen as X-23 and Liev Schreiber as Sabertooth.

Deadpool & Wolverine is scheduled for release on July 26.