Ms. Marvel is very quickly becoming one of the best-reviewed Marvel Disney+ premieres ever. The series brings together the culture of South Asian and Muslim people with the MCU’s trademark action. The press conference last week gave us a conversation between members of the cast and crew with members of the media. Included on the call were: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Mohan Kapur, Zenobia Shroff, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Meera Menon, Kevin Feige, Sana Amanat, Rish Shah, Iman Vellani, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Saagar Shaikh, and Bisha K. Ali.

Kevin Feige kicked off the panel with a lengthy quote about Kamala:

Why not, I say.  I mean honestly Marvel it’s such a privilege because not only are the re-interpretations every few years of existing wonderful characters, but every once in a while, and it does seem like every decade or so, there’s a new character that comes around that catches the audiences imagination. And this character clearly did that.  And as I said to some people on the red carpet last night, almost from the first few issues people started asking us in environments like this when we were promoting other things, when is Kamala Khan coming?  When is Ms. Marvel coming?  So, it always seemed inevitable in a gray way that we would be able to do it.  When Disney+ came around, it really gave us the opportunity to do what we really wanted do which was tell her full story in six episodes. 

And then have her then transition into a feature.  And as Sana said, I’m so proud of bringing new characters to the screen and not just telling re-interpretations of characters people have seen for decades and decades.  And I think that’s important.  I want people who’ve never even considered watching a Marvel Studios production before to be excited and watch this show and then go watch all the other ones. 

Iman Vellani Talks Getting The Role And Thinking It Was Fake

February 2022 I get the WhatsApp forward.  I thought it was a scam.  I don’t know what casting calls look like.  But they are not white pages that say, Ms. Marvel Disney+ and headshot and resume here. So, it turned out to be real.  Yeah, I did it.  And sent in a very academic resume, the one photo I had of myself.  And they sent back the sides for the self-tape.  I was like, I knew exactly which comic books they pulled them from.  And I was like, okay this is real.  I can’t do it.  I was like making excuses for myself out of fear of failure.  And at, like, 3:00 a.m. the night it was due, I sent in my self-tape.  I was like, my 10-year-old self is gonna hate me if I don’t even try.  And two days later I get a call.

They’re like, do you have a lawyer?  We wanna fly you to LA.  And I was like, I have a math test, but okay.  And next thing, I’m in LA with my dad.  It was like the greatest trip of my life.  And I was fan-girling over Sarah Finn and Lewis D-Esposito.  And I wanted to take full advantage of being in that room, ’cause I didn’t know if it was gonna happen again.  And yeah, then pandemic hit, and they sent me one email.  And they were like, “Look, you’re very much in the running.  We just gotta figure some stuff out on our side.”  And I was like, “I gotta figure out university on my side.”

Sana Amanat Speaks About The Magic Of The Series

You know, I think what’s really incredible about this show is like this idea of, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about identity and sort of there’s so much celebration happening in the course of these episodes.  In every single episode there’s just so much love and connectivity.  And I feel like this show is really about sort of, you know, a reclamation of your identity, about going back to whatever households. 

Watch this show and go back to your own households, your own community and kinda relish in it.  And celebrate your community and the fact that we can be proud in whatever skin color, background, sexual identity that we might have, and embrace it.  I think that’s, we want this show to feel so joyous, ’cause I mean I think this is obviously such a joyous team here.  But we want the show and the people to feel joyous afterwards and to celebrate in the fact of who they are and who their communities are and just kinda spread that love outwards.

You can check out our full review of the first two episodes of Ms. Marvel below.

For more on Marvel, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.

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