Simu Liu to play the antagonist in Jennifer Lopez-fronted Atlas

Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings star Simu Liu is set to play the villain in Netflix's Atlas, a sci-fi thriller movie headlined by Jennifer Lopez.

According to entertainment outlet Deadline, This Is Us star Sterling K Brown and The Great actor Abraham Popoola will play key roles in the upcoming film.

The movie follows Atlas (Lopez), a woman fighting for humanity in a future where an AI (artificial intelligence) soldier has determined the only way end war is to end humanity. To outthink this rogue AI, Atlas must work with the one thing she fears most: another AI.

Brad Peyton of Rampage fame will direct Atlas, penned by screenwriter Aron Eli Coleite, who worked off an original script by Leo Sardarian.

Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell will produce for Safehouse Pictures along with Peyton and Jeff Fierson for ASAP Entertainment as well as Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina joining Lopez to back the project through Nuyorican Productions.

The movie falls under the first-look deal Lopez signed last year with Netflix.

Last year in June, Simu Liu, on Facebook, revealed why his beloved show Kim’s Convenience was ending abruptly after its fifth and final season.

“Season five of Kim’s Convenience comes out on Netflix today, and I’m feeling a host of emotions right now. It is, of course, our last season, thanks to a decision by our producers not to continue the show after the departure of two showrunners,” Liu said.

The actor went on to list the problems in his bid to dispel some of the “speculation” surrounding the show’s end.

The 32-year-old Chinese-Canadian actor, who becomes the first actor of Asian origin to headline a Marvel superhero movie in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, said he wanted to be a part of the sixth season, contrary to rumours about how he had become “suddenly too ‘Hollywood’ for Canadian TV”.

Liu said despite his willingness to stay with the show, he was “growing increasingly frustrated” with the stagnation of the character he portrayed on the show and also “with the way I was being treated”.

He said the Asian-Canadian cast was not given a chance to include their lived-in experience from the “overwhelmingly white producers”.