Ms. Marvel has introduced plenty of new faces to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Along with the titular hero, aka Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), fans of the series have also been introduced to her friends — Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) and Bruno (Matt Lintz) — and family — Yusuf (Mohan Kapur), Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff), and Aamir (Saagar Shaikh). While the superhero antics are fun, the heart of Ms. Marvel is the cast and the family they create together, as discussed during a press conference attended by CBR. During the conference, Shroff, who portrays Kamala’s mother, talked about creating her character and the family dynamic.
“I think Muneeba Khan is a real prototype of the South Asian mother: highly protective, very loving, kind, but very fierce and will throw down when she has to,” Shroff said. “I just think in terms of the family dynamic, Adil [El Arbi], Bilall [Fallah], we all got there about three weeks before the shooting began, but it was very organic. We had a few rehearsals. I don’t think anything was forced or pushed.”
Along with the creators off-screen helping bring this family dynamic together, the cast played a major role in not only making the family feel organic but also welcoming viewers into the Khan’s home and community. As Shroff continued to address, the dynamics she explored within the Khan family and with her cast mates felt real, as they all understood one another on a personal level as well as their characters.
“Saagar and Mohan and I,” Shroff added, “have been saying we have a baseline understanding of each other and Iman because we were all born in South Asian households. Whether these two were born in the Americas, we were raised in India, but we have a baseline understanding of each other, which is very deep. It’s the yin and yang of it. Muneeba became the yang; she’s definitely the yang. Yusuf became the more loving, straightforward parent. It just sort of evolved very organically, but what you’re seeing is not uncommon for many, many South Asian households. I think we just created it very naturally. There was never a word exchange, ‘You do this,’ or ‘I do that.’ Mohan and I, as Muneeba and Yusuf, I think created that very naturally.”
The characters of Ms. Marvel are truly the heart of this series, and they give fans a look into this family as well as their community. With Kamala being the first Muslim superhero in the MCU, her culture is another thing proudly on display throughout the series, and it’s one of the many factors of what makes Kamala the hero viewers love.
“I think it was about letting the world into the secret that the South Asian culture is pretty freaking cool,” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, director of Ms. Marvel Episodes 4 and 5, said. “Our food, our music, the way the parents’ relationship with the kids are — I wanted to make it cool so that anybody watching it would be like, ‘That was my argument with my mom when I wanted to go out.’ [I wanted to] sort of make it such that anyone watching beyond the Muslim world, South Asian immigrant families watching, could see a reflection of themselves on screen. The superhero bit was just that I always believe that everyone has a superhero in them, they just have to activate it. Telling this story is going to change so much for so many people because I know I have two young girls that when they see Kamala Khan, they too will know that they can also be a superhero.”
Kamala Khan is a fan favorite in the comics, and she is sure to become a fan favorite on-screen, too. Ms. Marvel gives her so many layers, from her culture to her religion, from her family to her love for superheroes, and so much more. As El Arbi, an executive producer and director on Ms. Marvel, discussed, this show does love its superheroes, but its greatest strength is its characters and the family they’ve created.
“They can see the show, fall in love with Kamala Khan, with her friends and her family because she has superpowers, but her real powers are the love and the care from the friends and the family,” El Arbi said. “This magnificent cast here that brought these characters to life, that’s the real main reason to watch the show. I hope it’s gonna be their family, the same way that we all became family.”
Catch the first two episodes of Ms. Marvel, streaming now on Disney+.