In comics, Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is a major Avengers fan even before getting superpowers and becoming a hero in her own right and when it comes to the upcoming Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, it seems like life is imitating art in a major way. According to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, series star Iman Vellani is a huge Marvel fan — and may even be a bigger one than Spider-Man actor Tom Holland.
In an interview with Empire Magazine (via The Direct), Feige compared Vellani to Holland and spoke about how she has a notebook with her own ideas on set and that even if they hadn’t worked with her on those ideas, she’s such a fan she would have had a lot to say just the same.
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“Much like Tom Holland and Peter Parker, Iman is a much bigger Marvel fan than we realized,” Feige said. “[On set] she carries this Unabomber notebook with her everywhere, with her scribbles and ideas. And why wouldn’t we want to hear them? Not just because she’s playing the lead, she’d be commenting on the show online. So, better comment before the show’s done, and try to incorporate some of those ideas.”
Ms. Marvel co-creator Sana Amanat also spoke about how big of an MCU fan Vellani is — specifically referencing the star’s “closet full” of Iron Man merch and a list of questions about the MCU that Feige keeps in his home office. She also spoke about how it all comes together for her to encompass the Ms. Marvel role.
“She really encompasses the character, not just in her passion and her neediness,” Amanat said. “She has this sense of soulfulness and maturity that is beyond her years. In one screen test she flipped in maybe a minute from very awkward and teenager-like to very sad and wanting, and that’s hard to do for someone with no experience acting.”
Ms. Marvel is set to debut on Disney+ on June 8th. The description for the series is as follows: “Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel is a new, original series that introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, Kamala is a Super Hero mega fan with an oversized imagination—particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home—that is, until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life gets better with super powers, right?”
Are you looking forward to Ms. Marvel? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
