Episode 4 of Ms. Marvel saw Kamala Khan leave New Jersey and head to Karachi, where she quickly met Kareem, played by Aramis Knight, and learned about a secret order of protectors known as the Red Daggers. Part of keeping an order secret is having a secret location that’s tough to sniff out and the Red Daggers’ lair certainly fit that description.
In the episode, it was revealed that the lair could be accessed through a hidden hallway behind a stove in a restaurant, something Kamala Khan found fascinating. According to Knight, the hidden lair, complete with sliding stove, was an entirely practical set and something that was kept secret from him and Iman Vellani until the day of filming.
That set was 100% practical. The Chinese restaurant set as well as when I pushed the oven and it reveals the Red Dagger HQ in the hall…that was totally practical. So that day, while we were rehearsing-it was me and Iman and Sharmeen-and we were walking through the door and we weren’t even in costumes yet, loosely walking through it, I go to push the oven and I figured that the oven would maybe move back and we’d move to a different set. Little did I know, it was 100% practical. So when I pushed it back, it just kept rolling back, kept rolling back, like 20-30 feet into just, this huge hallway, and you walk down this hallway and you’re into that like beautiful blueish-green color of the Red Dagger lair. It was just amazing. We literally stopped in the middle of our rehearsal and were just like in awe of the set that they had built. It was incredible.
Aramis Knight
In a time where complicated sets are often touched up with VFX or shot using technology like the volume, a practical set of that size with so many moving parts is impressive. Equally impressive was the crew’s ability to keep it from the actors, allowing Vellani to get an authentic reaction to the hidden hallway that could inform her character’s discovery of it during filming. The set design has been top notch for all four episodes of Ms. Marvel and the lair of the Red Daggers is no different.
