Simu Liu shows Jimmy Fallon his unfairly rejected Saturday Night Live impressions

You get the sense that some Saturday Night Live hosts don’t exactly bring a lot to the table. There to promote an upcoming project, some actors (or [shuddering] athletes) wind up putting their various talents in the hands of the show’s writers, with everyone involved just hoping for the best. Not so, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, who, on Thursday’s Tonight Show, debuted the two (pretty much spot-on) impressions he’d worked up for the big, pre-hosting Monday morning meeting with the SNL staff.

Sadly, according to Liu, none of his hard work and preparation will be in evidence on Saturday, at least not in the form of sketches built around either his Emperor Palpatine or Gollum impressions, which the actor showed of to an appreciative Fallon’s amazement. It appears that the current Saturday Night Live writers just can’t see it when an acclaimed Asian-Canadian thespian pitches sketches built around two British villains from popular sci-fi fantasy franchises. Their loss.

And, okay, Liu didn’t have all of his Palpatine’s dialogue down yet, growling out the Emperor’s lines, “Something, something, something—dark side!” But, hey, that’s why they’re the writers, and Liu’s just the major MCU movie star. And the actor’s Gollum is even better, wowing Fallon with a stellar approximation of Andy Serkis’ anguished work as everyone’s favorite little ring-obsessed monster-hobbit. Anybody can squeak out a serviceable “My precious,” but Liu really went for it in his extended Gollum riff, nailing Serkis’ throat-swallowed cadence, and the high, squeaking rage that Frodo just won’t give up that damned ring.

So the ball’s in SNL’s court to give Liu some roles better than those, as the actor joked that he was “a little offended” that nobody at the show was picking up what he was putting down. Liu did mention his upcoming real-life role alongside the Sesame Street gang (speaking of lovable little monsters), helping to introduce the first-ever Asian Muppet, the Korean-American Ji-Young.

Not to pitch ideas to the evidently super-picky SNL writers room, but that team-up seems ripe for a cold open, what with Republicans currently being mocked into smithereens for frothing at the mouth over the beloved children’s show’s perennial commitment to battling ignorance and bigotry through kindness, reason, and understanding. (After all, Mikey Day and Alex Moffat have already shown us their terrifying live-action Bert and Ernie.) There’s still time to get Lui into some felt, people.