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Google PlayTelevision shows often tend to take on the personalities of their central character, infusing the show with that specific energy. In the case of the excellent Ms. Marvel, the latest MCU/Disney+ series is essentially a charm offensive thanks to its series lead, Iman Vellani. The young performer is making her acting debut in Ms. Marvel, although you’d be hard-pressed to know it based on how she carries herself across the two episodes that aired on Disney+ thus far.
Vellani grew up reading the Ms. Marvel comic book and her enthusiasm for that G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona series is well-documented. What’s so striking about Vellani is how well she knows the MCU, going so far as to correct Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, about the correct multiversal designation. Considering her character, Kamala Khan is a huge fan of superheroes; it’s a perfect match between the role and actor—one upon which her co-stars agree.
Complex recently sat down with Vellani during a virtual junket for Ms. Marvel and chatted about how her fandom informed the character, what personal touches of her made it into the show, and what it was like going from a TV show to starring in the upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, and much more.
IV: Kamala’s notebook that she has in the show is based on my notebook in real life. I carry this little book around everywhere. It’s like my journal, but also like ideas and drawings and everything. Our producers thought—they’re like, “I think Kamala needs one too.” And now, we use it a lot for just like telling the animation sequences in the show and the fantasy montages. We really use her notebook to kind of be her creative outlet.
It’s funny you bring up the notebook and the animation because that was one thing that really struck me about that opening sequence was just like visually how kinetic it was. Was that something that, even when you read the script on the page, did you have a sense of how the visuals were going to look even from the writing?
IV: Kinda. I understood a little bit [of] what it was gonna look like because of the voiceover. That was really helpful, just [based on] how fast-paced they wanted the voiceover; I could put two and two together about how fast-paced it was gonna look in general. But I don’t watch myself and so seeing it for the first time fully edited was like, “Oh, wow. This is cool.”
What was it like to go from a show to a movie like The Marvels? Was there a difference, or did it feel like it was the same but bigger?
IV: It was really intimidating, especially because on Ms. Marvel, no one was super, super famous, and so I wasn’t like freaking out working with any of our cast members because everyone was super grounded, and we were all just close friends. On The Marvels, I was the youngest and the newest and worked with established Oscar-winning actors. So that could be really intimidating, but they made me feel so welcome; they are so human, gave me good advice, and just held my hand throughout the entire process.
New episodes of Ms. Marvel Season 1 premiere on Disney+ at 3 a.m. ET on Wednesdays.
