Shang-Chi star Simu Liu's new role: A one-eyed samurai in a Netflix anime film

Fresh off his success with Marvel’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Canadian actor Simu Liu will soon appear – so to speak – in the Netflix anime, Bright: Samurai Soul. The 32-year-old is set to voice one of the lead characters in the film’s English-language version.

Bright: Samurai Soul is based in the same fantasy world created by David Ayer’s 2017 Netflix film, Bright, which starred Will Smith and Joel Edgerton and had creatures such as elves and orcs. 

The anime offshoot, slated for release on Oct 12, will explore a new setting, time period and characters and will pair the aesthetic of Japanese woodblock print art with 3DCG technology.

Other voice actors tapped for the English dub include Fred Mancuso and Yuzu Harada. The Japanese version will feature Yuki Nomura, Daisuke Hirakawa and Shion Wakayama.

The film is set in Japan at the beginning of the Meiji period and follows a one-eyed wandering samurai (Liu), an orc thief (Mancuso) and a young elf girl (Harada) as they make their way to the land of the elves in the north, all while trying to keep the elf girl’s wand from falling into the wrong hands.

This isn't Liu's first voice acting gig – he's also voicing the character of Zhima in the upcoming animated series Star Wars: Visions, set to premiere on Sep 22.