Ms. Marvel – Fangirl Power

The Marvel Cinematic Universe gets a bright new star in MS. MARVEL, a groundbreaking teen superhero who is as obsessed with the Avengers as the actor who plays her. TOTAL FILM meets the team bringing KAMALA KHAN to embiggen the small screen.

- By Matt Maytum

I only auditioned because I was a huge Marvel fan, laughs Iman Vellani, the 19-year-old newcomer cast in the title role of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's latest Disney+ series. It's April and Vellani is Zooming with Total Film from her childhood bedroom in Markham, Ontario, Canada. The only thing I would talk about is Marvel, Marvel, Marvel - specifically Iron Man. That little corner is totally an Iron Man shrine. She signals to a red-and-gold-hued patch on a wall plastered with posters (mostly Marvel, but Portrait Of A Woman On Fire can be glimpsed in the mix).

It's appropriate that Vellani's a full-on Marvel fangirl, as the character she's bringing to the MCU is a superfan of the Avengers (particularly Captain Marvel); Kamala Khan avidly follows her idols' exploits in New York from across the river in New Jersey. Dressed in a dark-blue Marvel Comics t-shirt, Vellani had no real acting experience before a chance text message led to an audition.

I didn't even want to do acting, she laughs. My aunt got a WhatsApp forward from a group which she never opens. So it was so fated that this even happened. It was like, 'Ms. Marvel casting. Send headshot and resume here. After being talked into it, she sent an academic CV and received audition sides to self-tape; being a comics nerd she could pinpoint some of the exact issues the dialogue was drawn from.