Why Kevin Feige is 'a bit afraid' of Ms Marvel star Iman Vellani

Despite being the president of Marvel Studios and one of the biggest names in Hollywood, Kevin Feige still has his fears, and one of them is Ms Marvel star Iman Vellani.

During a virtual interview yesterday (June 2), executive producer Sana Amanat spilled the beans on how the 19-year-old's first encounter with Kevin went down.

"Kevin Feige is a bit afraid of her," shared Sana. "She had, like, 78 questions for him the first time that they met. She wrote it on four pages of paper and she threw it at him because she was so nervous."

In an earlier interview with Comicbook.com, Sana said Iman is a huge Marvel fan and has a closet filled with Iron Man merchandise.

Iman even sent Sana a list critiquing all the previous Marvel movies, reported entertainment news website MovieWeb.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm constantly on my toes just trying to react to some of her questions because she's always asking me Marvel questions," Sana added. "I don't know if I know all these answers because she knows so much."

Ms Marvel is a six-episode series on Disney+ featuring Kamala Khan (Iman), a Muslim American teenager from Jersey City and a superhero megafan, especially when it comes to Captain Marvel. She's always struggled to fit in, both at school and at home, until she gains superpowers like the heroes she's always looked up to.

Ms Marvel is notably Marvel Studios' first Muslim superhero. 

[[nid:577882]]

However, in spite of her endless questions, Iman is still the perfect Kamala in their eyes.

"She matched exactly what we had in our minds. And she played it even better than what we expected," said director Adil El Arbi.

"We needed somebody who was charming and likeable and somebody who could also have that range because it's a real coming-of-age story."

"The scariest and the easiest thing, oddly enough, was casting Kamala," Sana said.

"I think it was the scariest because of what was in my head and being nervous to be able to match that, and then the easiest was finding Iman Vellani because there's no other version of Kamala than Iman."

She added: "What's really amazing about that is that she really captures the essence of who Kamala is, and her quirkiness, nerdiness, bluntness and the amount of joy and love she has and vulnerability at the same time. And yet she brings her own kind of spice to it. She's got a personality and she's so fun to be around."

Ms Marvel premieres June 8 on Disney+.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CeRL3SDAEUA/[/embed]

estherlam@asiaone.com