How The Cast Of Ms Marvel Made The Most Relatable Show In The MCU

How The Cast Of Ms Marvel Made The Most Relatable Show In The MCU

On June 8, the world will be introduced to Marvel’s newest hero, Ms Marvel, and there’s more than one reason she is well worth paying attention to.

Not only is Ms Marvel the first South Asian superhero in the MCU, but she’s also one of the youngest. Her solo series on Disney+ injects a refreshing teen vibe into the MCU thanks in part to its fun style, but mainly due to its vibrant young cast.

Kamala Khan, aka Ms Marvel herself, is played with boundless energy and heart by newcomer Iman Vellani. Alongside her is a cast of equally loveable characters, including her two best friends Bruno and Nakia, and the new boy at school, Kamran.

To find out more about Ms Marvel and their characters, Gizmodo Australia spoke with Rish Shah (Kamran), Yasmeen Fletcher (Nakia) and Matt Lintz (Bruno).

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Ms Marvel Cast Interview (Image: Marvel Studios/Disney)

The actors confirmed that their character’s close friendship on the show also translated off-screen.

“Everything you see at the school with Bruno and Nakia and Kamala, I mean it’s genuine,” Lintz said. “I mean [we] literally go on set and we just basically are ourselves and we have fun. That dynamic is very genuine.”

Adding to that authenticity, the actors said that their characters transitioned very cleanly from comic to screen.

“[Ms. Marvel] stays very true to the comics on all the characters,” Lintz said.

“I think that the creatives were super collaborative with us and wanted to make the characters feel a lot more like us in any way possible so that we could make the material feel super natural to us,” Fletcher said. “But I think that the characters translate really well and their personalities, their core and their identity are all still very similar to how they were in the comics.”

ms marvel kamran
Ms Marvel Cast Interview (Image: Marvel Studios/Disney)

Shah also confirmed that, like Kamala Khan, the trio are all “obsessed” with the MCU and that one of their favourite perks about becoming part of the franchise was seeing things on their show that they themselves were fans of.

“I think that there were times that I’d forget that it was a Marvel show and then I’d like to walk through the soundstage doors and they’d have some cheeky little Doctor Strange reference in the ‘Quiet on Set’ thing and it’d just like wake me up for a second,” Fletcher said. “So all those little Easter eggs around all the sets are just so fun to discover.”

“Especially meeting people,” Lintz added. “Like one day Tom Holland came to set and just wanted to see what’s up and he was, you know, happy that this was happening. Just getting to meet people like that, it’s just so surreal.”

ms marvel cast
Ms Marvel Cast Interview (Image: Marvel Studios/Disney)

One of the most appealing aspects of Ms. Marvel is its relatability. It may be a superhero show, but the characters deal with everyday teenage problems, like school assignments and getting permission from their parents to attend things like Avenger Con.

“I think a really cool thing about this show is that, to an extent, it kind of holds up a mirror and is like a reflection of everybody watching it,” Fletcher said.

“So I’m really excited for people to sit down with their families and watch the show. Watch the dynamics and all the intricate little jokes or just connections and be like ‘I have that with this person’, or ‘I’m like that in my day to day life’. It’s a really cool show that’s new for the MCU.”

The actors also teased some of their favourite days on set, which ended up being a tie between Eid in Episode 2 and the wedding, which takes place later in the season.

“I think one of my favourite days on set was, I wasn’t even working that day, but I remember coming down when you guys were filming Eid,” Shah said.

“I’m going to say the wedding,” Fletcher said. “The wedding set was incredible but the energy on that set was just so fun.”

ms marvel cast
Ms Marvel Cast Interview (Image: Marvel Studios/Disney)

Of course, it doesn’t take long before Kamala’s normality is turned upside down and superpowers enter the equation. Although if the show sticks as closely to the comics as the cast members claim, she may not be the only one living that superhero life.

Comic readers will know that Kamran is revealed to be an inhuman in the Ms Marvel comics, but Shah kept quiet on whether a similar thing would be happening to his character in the show.

“I’ve lost my ability to talk. I can’t tease anything,” he said.

Regardless of whether the Disney+ series stays true to every storyline, Lintz did say that fans will “appreciate how the comics are brought to the show”, which means Wednesdays are definitely about to get a bit more Marvel-lous.

Ms Marvel streams weekly on Disney+ from June 8.

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