Simu Liu: Channing Tatum Pushed Me to Step Up in Avengers: Doomsday

Before cameras rolled on their showdown at the X-Mansion, Simu Liu says Channing Tatum turned their first fight rehearsal into a wake-up call. Watching Tatum move through the choreography, Liu realized this wasn’t going to be a scene he could coast through — the guy playing Gambit came ready to throw down.

“Forced me to bring my A-game,” Simu Liu said of Tatum pushing him during their fight rehearsals, in an official Marvel interview at Comic-Con.

Liu added that both actors leaned into the physical side, keeping as much of the action on themselves as they safely could. The result, he said, was less about cool moves and more of a real back-and-forth — two performers trying to outdo each other beat by beat.

Trailer sets the stage

The new Avengers: Doomsday trailer backs that up with a quick-cut brawl that jumps from the grounds of the X-Mansion into the school itself: Shang-Chi sweeping in with the Ten Rings, Gambit snapping open his staff and flinging kinetically charged cards that the Rings whip away at the last second. Around them, the multiverse is coming apart.

• New York buckling under an incursion, sky burning red
• Doctor Doom leading an army of Sentinels
• The X-Mansion bracing for impact as realities collide
• Shang-Chi vs. Gambit, Ten Rings vs. explosive cards, bo staff vs. hand-to-hand

From clash to chemistry

On the page, Shang-Chi and Gambit have mostly lived in separate corners of Marvel lore, not exactly best friends. Liu hinted their dust-up in Doomsday starts with a misunderstanding and doesn’t end there, suggesting the fight we see is the first step toward an unexpected alliance once the bigger threat hits.

Liu’s Comic-Con comments point to why that brief matchup pops in the trailer: both leads pushing each other in the rehearsal room, then carrying that charge onto the screen when their characters finally meet.