There was some controversy surrounding the decision to change Ms. Marvel’s iconic abilities. While people have warmed up to the idea, especially as it still keeps the door open for further exploring, Iman Vellani offered some insight into how they brought her new powers to life for the Disney+ series. In an interview with Variety, she talks about how they tackled the new MCU ability and the challenges of doing so, especially as she had to coordinate with the series’ VFX supervisors.
A lot of it was having conversations with our VFX supervisors, [asking] “How heavy is it? How hard is it for me to manifest it? How big is it? How much space do I have to leave in a frame?” Because if my hands here [motions to the outer corner of the Zoom frame] then you’re not going to be able to VFX anything in there.” We had to be super specific about it. It’s an amalgamation of a lot of people’s thoughts and opinions, and now Kamala has these really cool powers.
Iman Vellani
She also highlighted how she approach the way her character moved. As she’s a ser fan of the various superheroes, sh based a lot of her abilities on how others moved, such as Captain Marvel and Black Widow. Yet, she highlights that she’ll eventually also grow into her own kind of hero.
She’s a 16-year-old kid, probably doesn’t know martial arts or any sort of fighting, so she’s probably copying everything she sees the rest of the Avengers do. So, we wanted to incorporate like a lot of Black Widow callbacks and Captain Marvel poses because this was really the only show where we could be as cheesy as possible and it’d be okay. This is Kamala’s life. She lives in fantasy land and she finally gets this fantasy — of course, she’s going to take full advantage of it. Over the course of time, she becomes her own version of a superhero — still clumsy, because she’s not perfect — but more unique poses.
Iman Vellani
It definitely sounds like they put a lot of work into bringing the character to life while keeping her core traits in mind. She’s a fan of superheroes and will have the habit of trying to copy them rather than do her own thing. Her family might be a big reason she starts to learn her own place and also further develops these abilities that may redefine her life as a teenager and hero.
Source: Variety
