Iman Vellani has always related to Kamala Khan for several reasons. Crazy to think that WhatsApp is the reason she got cast in this role.
Iman Vellani has always related to Kamala Khan for several reasons — not only does she look like her, but she’s a huge Marvel fangirl as well. Vellani knows her stuff when it comes to the MCU, but also when it comes to the comic books.
From the moment she first picked up a Ms. Marvel comic, she was hooked. So when auditions opened for the role of Kamala in the MCU, Vellani just had to audition. But how did she even learn about them? Well, she has WhatsApp and her Aunt to thank for that.
Vellani jokes that this is the brownest way this could have happened, a forward on WhatsApp from her Aunt, which is a a very Muslim, South Asian thing.
Luckily for her, and for fans who are sure to fall in love with her, she decided to believe the audition was real, even though she didn’t believe it at first. “I get the WhatsApp forward. I thought it was a scam. I don’t know what casting calls look like. But they are not like pages that say Ms. Marvel and Disney+, a headshot and resume here.”
Well, it was real and luckily Iman decided to go for it. She sent in a very academic resume and the one photo she had of herself. Disney+ responded asking for a self tape, and as she read over the lines, she knew exactly what comic books they pulled from for the script. That’s when she was like “Okay, this is real. I can’t do it.”
Vellani continues that she was making excuses for her herself out of fear of failure. I was like, making excuses for myself out of fear of failure. “At like 3am the night it was due, I said to myself, my 10 year old self is gonna hate me if I don’t even try. And two days later, I get a call.” During that call, Disney+ told her they wanted to fly her to LA and next thing she knew she was in LA with dad, having the time of her life.
“It was the greatest trip of my life and fangirling over Louis D’Esposito. I wanted to take full advantage of being in that room because I didn’t know if it was gonna happen again.” Then the pandemic hit, which delayed things. Marvel sent her an email letting her know she was still in the running, but they had to figure some stuff out on their side. “Then June 2020, I sent in last self tape, and then we did a screen test over Zoom. And I got cast on the last day of high school.”
Everyone can see just how much Marvel means to Iman Vellani, and that helps her be the perfect fit for Kamala Khan AKA Ms. Marvel. Be sure to check her out in action when Ms. Marvel comes to Disney+ on June 8th.
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About Ms. Marvel
Marvel Studios’ “Ms. Marvel” is a new, original series that introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, Kamala is a Super Hero megafan with an oversized imagination—particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home—that is, until she gets superpowers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life gets better with superpowers, right?
MS. MARVEL will air weekly on Disney+ beginning June 8, 2022.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.