Marvel: Kevin Feige Praises Ms. Marvel Star Iman Vellani

It’s strange how there is always an upcoming Marvel project to look forward to. Moon Knight and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are now behind us, so now we’re looking at what’s to come, and the next movie is Thor: Love and Thunder, but before that, we’ll watch Ms. Marvel, a new series set to debut on Disney+ on June 8.

The upcoming series is set to introduce Kamala Khan, a teenage girl who likes to spend her time writing fanfiction about superheroes, especially Captain Marvel, who is her favorite. Soon, Kamala will experience something that, let’s be real, every Marvel fan dreams of, she will become a superhero herself — Ms. Marvel.

Ms. Marvel was first introduced in the Marvel Comics in August 2013. She is a Pakistani American from New Jersey with powers similar to Reed Richards’. However, her powers will be heavily modified for her MCU incarnation, which drew some controversies among the fans. Ms. Marvel was one of the central characters in Marve’s Avengers video game.

Iman Vellani was cast to play the character in September 2020, and she’s already set to reprise the role in The Marvels, the upcoming movie in which she’ll join forces with Brie Larson, who returns as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, and Teyonah Parris, who will reprise the role of Monica Rambeau from the WandaVision series.

Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios and the producer of every MCU project recently spoke about Vellani, and he had plenty of good words to say, especially since Vellani didn’t have any experience in acting before joining the MCU. You can read Feige’s full statement below:

“Much like Tom Holland and Peter Parker, Iman is a much bigger Marvel fan than we realized. [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. […] She really encompasses the character, not just in her passion and her neediness. 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. […] The day I met her I was like ‘Oh, I’m talking to the character that we’ve been agonizing over for the past year.’ Draft after draft, I could hear my dialogue in her mouth.” — Kevin Feige for Empire Magazine

Created by Bisha K. Ali, Ms. Marvel will premiere on June 8 exclusively on HBOMax. Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, known for directing Bad Boys for Life and the upcoming DC movie Batgirl, are directing the premiere episode, as well as the finale of the series.